SMOKING OUT THE ENEMY. 389 



replied ; even the Indian yell died away. The fire at the 

 door had been trampled out, and there was a most per- 

 fect hush, contrasting fearfully with the yells and tumult 

 a moment before. Lou listened and watched, but the 

 tower was thick with smoke, and darkness had settled 

 over all the world. She did not dare to descend, know- 

 ing it would be a useless sacrifice and no help to her 

 kinsman. She did not dare to go to the edge of the lan- 

 tern, for doubtless the savages were watching her from 

 below. She only fulfilled her woman's mission and 

 waited and hoped. 



She had been thus lying on her breast by the trap 

 door an hour or more, during the most profound silence. 

 The moon had arisen, and by its rays the winding stairs 

 came partially out of the obscurity. Here and there 

 down the black vault, a narrow slit of pale light came 

 across the darkness, from the windows, and made a 

 freckle on the stairs. Something moved past one of 

 these bars of light, far down the tower. A moment 

 after it passed another opening on the moonward side of 

 the tower. Again, though without noise, it had mounted 

 nearer, and where the bar of moonshine crossed it, Lou 

 recognized the vermilion daubed face and braided scalp- 

 lock of an Indian. In an instant after, it disappeared in 

 the dark. She drew back as from an apparition, or from 

 the arch fiend himself. She shut her eyes, and yet by 

 her mental vision saw the brindled shape mounting 

 nearer. 



She would have prayed, but she scorned to address in 



