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140 Hardly had he gained his feet when an arrow whizzed past his head burying itself in the tree trunk behind him.

"The attack is on!" came from James Morris, who was already up. "They have fired the woods on two sides of the camp and they are laying for us on the other two sides. I'm afraid it is going to be a fight to the finish."

There was no time to say more for the confusion on every hand was great. The shouting and shooting continued, and in the midst of this Captain Tanner ran around, followed by Lieutenant Baldwick, giving orders to the men and advising the women and children what to do. To the uproar was added the mad prancing around of some of the horses, who sniffed the smoke, and the screams of the frightened children, some clinging to the skirts of their mothers and others running about looking for their parents, who had become lost to them in the general mix-up.

"Stay with your aunt and uncle, Dave," said James Morris. "They'll need you. I'll go out with the soldiers," and in a second he was bounding away, to learn how bad the situation really was, and what might be done to remedy it.

What happened during the next hour seemed to the boy, afterward, more like some horrible dream