394 WILD SPOETS IN THE SOUTH. 



seemingly inhabited only by the cardinal birds, were 

 sheltering her enemies as well. She peered out from the 

 crevices of the tower, watching her foes or the passing 

 sails that, unconscious of her fate, crept along the hori- 

 zon, and the sea, in glassy undulations murmured to the 

 shore. 



As noon rode in the dazzling air and the hollow toAver 

 still stood, blackened by the fire, yet seemingly deserted, 

 the Indians, satisfied by the death-like stillness, stole 

 from their hiding-places to examine their work of 

 destruction. First one crept out, with his rifle in his 

 hand, winding around difi*erent covers until he reached 

 the base of the toAver, and looked up its lofty cone. 

 The embers still smoldered in its base, and up the 

 darkened trunk he could see the square hole that led 

 to the platform, and through it the blue of the sky. 

 Then another savage came out, and another, and they 

 gathered together and talked long at the base of the 

 tower. Lou saw them from where she lay, and could 

 have thrown her lamp-scissors on their heads, but she 

 kept quiet and concealed. The savages, tired of their 

 siege, aAd satisfied that they had destroyed the only 

 occupants of the light-house, collected together the spoils 

 from the dAvelling-house, and jDutting them in their 

 canoes, prepared to start. Lou watched them eagerly, 

 thinking she might see her uncle a prisoner among them. 

 She saw the patchwork coverlet from her bed go down 

 wrapped around a painted chief. She saw some of the 

 little mantel ornaments, her uncle's large brass compass. 



