Dec. 23, 1911.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
899 
rush seemed to have been prearranged, because 
as they neared the stockade they united at in¬ 
tervals throughout their line to form a series 
of small parties, each of which, carrying small 
ladders made of fence rails and withes, directed 
its attack to a portion of the stockade midway 
between towers. 
As the savages got within range each man of 
the defenders fired through loopholes as fast as 
the women servants of the garrison could hand 
him a loaded gun. Toldan, at the first dis¬ 
charge of Old Buck, scored a hit, and the aim 
of other members of the garrison proved deadly, 
but as the onrushing masses of warriors totaled 
fully 200, it seemed as if no defense the few 
whites could make 
would prevent the 
imminent massacre. 
At the moment 
when the half dozen 
bunches of savages 
were scarcely twenty 
feet from the walls, 
a series of fearfu’ 
explosions from the 
towers fairly hurled 
everyone to the 
gound, while the 
smoke from the sev¬ 
eral wall pieces, which 
had been simultan¬ 
eously discharged, 
made an appalling 
darkness. As • the 
breeze blew it away, 
the defenses showed 
clear, the ground be¬ 
tween the towers was 
piled with victims, 
and between the fort 
and the woods not 
more than two-thirds 
of the original num¬ 
ber of Indians were 
making for shelter as 
fast as their legs 
could carry them. 
“That’s the end of 
their first assault,” 
said Mr. Wyncote. 
“They didn’t expect to find wall guns shoot¬ 
ing half a pound of bullets at a discharge, 
and they have learned a lesson. But that’s no 
reason that they may not get in here at night. 
We aren’t through with them yet.” 
As the morning wore on, Indians singly and 
in twos and threes crept within bowshot, and 
sheltered behind rocks and in hollows, kept the 
garrison in constant alarm. Very few of them 
had guns, and these were dangerous only by 
accident, for an Indian’s gun was ill kept and 
his marksmanship with it very poor. But since 
the whole flight of an arrow was visible to the 
Indian who shot it, and allowance for wind and 
distance could be made after each shot for the 
benefit of the succeeding one, their bowmariship 
became exceedingly annoying. While the height 
of the palisade was a great protection to the 
garrison, its many loopholes rattled so full of 
arrows that peering from them was a’most cer¬ 
tain death, and the Indians crept nearer, boldly 
showing themselves, and shooting from close 
quarters with even greater certainty. 
In this extremity Toldan suggested having 
short pieces sawed from some oak planks which 
were at hand and hung with leather hinges to 
cover the loop holes. One for himself he had 
bored in its middle with a two-inch hole, and so 
protected, he began using Old Buck with careful 
aim at every savage within reach. This plan 
worked so well that it was adopted by others 
of the defenders, with the result of soon driving 
the Indians back out of musket range. This 
was not, however, to any considerable distance, 
as further than a couple of hundred feet no 
ordinary musket could be depended upon to hit 
the size of a man, but as the Indian’s arrow at 
that distance was equally ineffective at the size 
of a loophole, both sides stopped firing. 
THROWING THE DIAMOND HITCH. 
From a photograph by William J. Ehrich. 
Shortly afterward the Indians retired to near 
the edge of the woods and began to get dinner. 
From the fort the party which was camped 
around the great boulder was in plain sight, and 
contained the war chief and a younger and very 
much painted and befeathered Indian who 
seemed to be his son. From time to time this 
pair of Indians, lolling on the boulder while 
others worked, yelled mockingly at the fort, and 
as the fun of the thing grew on them, they ex¬ 
hausted their ingenuity in impudent and inde¬ 
cent gestures. “If we could only hit that pair 
of scoundrels,” said Mr. Wyncote, “we shouldn't 
need our secret underground chamber this time. 
But they know right well that they are out of 
range of anything but a rifle, and I doubt if 
there is a rifle in all New England.” 
As Toldan sat watching he recollected a trick 
he had seen at a shooting match, and immedi¬ 
ately dispatched a couple of servants for a chair, 
a stick of soft wood, a piece of strong paper, 
some sawdust, paste and a string. The chair he 
set on the platform, one end of the stick he whit¬ 
tled to a cylinder having a diameter considerably 
less than that of the bore of Old Buck. Around 
this end of wood he wrapped the paper, and that 
again with string in even spirals, and tried it to 
see that it would just slip into the gun. Then, 
removing the hollow cylinder of string-wound 
paper, he put in a bullet, two layers of buckshot 
and another bullet, all being bedded in sawdust, 
and fastened the ends. The string was so ar¬ 
ranged that beginning with the hanging end it 
would entirely unwind and then rip open the 
paper case and let out the bullets. Old Buck 
next received a thorough internal cleaning and 
greasing, then a double charge of powder and 
the strange missile. 
All this preparation had been of great interest 
to the other lm-m- 
bers of the family 
who had been very 
free with comments. 
“Don’t you think it 
will strain her some 
to get that load way 
out there?” asked 
Mr. Wyncote. “You 
better hitch Old Buck 
before you shoot,” 
said Betty, mischie¬ 
vously. “She’s a 
he,” replied Toldan, 
“and a kicker. I 
wish you would stand 
behind me, Betty, and 
catch me when the 
heave comes.” 
In spite of the re¬ 
marks and the sly 
jokes of the servants, 
Toldan took the 
chair, rested the long 
musket on the top of 
the palisade, noted a 
bit of foliage that 
looked to be about 
two feet above and 
behind the Indians, 
aimed at it carefully, 
and pressed the trig¬ 
ger. 
There was a deaf¬ 
ening explosion and 
a violent upheaval. Toldan and the chair went 
over backward off the platform, and he might 
have been seriously hurt had he not been caught 
b} r the arms of his friends behind him. Old Buck 
also threw a back somersault, but was picked up 
unhurt. From the distant boulder came back 
sharply the sound of the whacks of many bul¬ 
lets. The two Indians fled—whether hit or 
missed could not be seen—and all their com¬ 
panions with them. 
An hour passed and no further shot was fired. 
Mr. Wyncote had carefully inspected every part 
of the clearing and the borders of the woods 
without seeing a sign of life. 
“I guess they thought we had fired one of 
those big guns at them and there was no safety 
anywhere. As a matter of fact the big guns 
are only good at close quarters, but of course 
they didn’t know that. 
The Indians had in fact had enough and had 
left to attack some other and weaker family. To 
Old Buck was due the finishing touch of their 
defeat; also the wedding, which took place short¬ 
ly after. 
