294 WILD SPORTS IN THE SOUTH. 



so quickly to the floor, the Indians could as easily have shot one 

 of the bale-fires that sometimes hung about the tower as her. As 

 if in answer to her act of devotion a moment after, from so far at 

 sea it looked like a thread of gold, a rocket went up into the air, 

 parted its trident rays, and dropped again into darkness. 



" Mother, mother ! " called the girl, stretching her hands seaward 

 toward the signal-light of the ship, " I am here " — but only the 

 billows thundered back their responses, and her wavering mind 

 flickered between reason and madness. 



When the lamp shone out from the tower, the scout, satisfied 

 of the safety, as he supposed, of Laidlaw and his niece, carefully 

 backed out from his concealment, and drawing his canoe from 

 under the rank foliage, noiselessly embarked and disappeared in 

 the darkness like a wraith. The fog and darkness concealed his 

 movements from all observation. He knew that with the darkness 

 he would be attacked by the savages, and that they would leave 

 unmolested the tower until he was taken or driven from the 

 neighbourhood. Having the first move, he moved away like a 

 knight on the chess-board, with a great zig-zag that carried him 

 far out into the sound, and then back to where he had seen the 

 Indian canoes lying during the day-time. 



This detour cost him much time, moving with the caution that 

 he thought necessary. When he had floated into one of the narrow 

 creeks, or ditches, that ran up into the beach, he left his canoe and 

 the hound, and crept down the shore to where he had seen the 

 Indians landing. Their canoes were gone. " Ha, I know'd it," said 

 Mike to himself, " they 've given over the fawn and are trailin' the 

 painter now." 



He crept on slowly from bush to bush toward the tower, and 

 soon came out from the grove to the cleared land, and warily 

 examined on every side for the rear-guard left by the enemy. 

 There appeared to be none. " Seven agin one," said Mike, smiling 

 to himself, " that's hardly fair play." 



Then straightening himself up under some heavy foliage he 

 looked long up into the lantern. There was no sound or motion 

 from there, only the light burned on tranquilly, falling aslant on 

 the heavy waves that crumbled over and hurried up the beach, 

 simmering with the phosphoric fire that made them blue and white. 



