Jeanne smiled grimly. “Very well, then we will both remain. We may be privileged to die fighting. Come, we are needed, every man of us.” She smiled again.
The savages now were rushing violently at the palisades to be met by a deadly fire from those within. Each time the besiegers fell back to devise a new method of attack. Once came a glare of torches flaring up into the night and hurled like fiery rockets at the palisades, but one after another fell harmlessly to the ground, feebly flickered a moment and then went out, as the spark of life likewise fled from their bearers stretched on the ground by the unerring shots from the little fort.
Alaine had discovered Lendert and had crept to his side. He did not see her; he was mechanically loading and reloading his musket. On the other side of the girl Joachim stationed himself to see her do as good service as any. At last the foe retreated for a brief rest, and Lendert withdrew his gaze from the loophole to see Alaine standing by him. “Here? Why are you not safe in the blockhouse, Alaine?”
“I am of more use here,” she replied, “and I would rather be with Jeanne and—you.” She whispered the last word. “I thought, perhaps God would let us die together, Lendert. That would be a happier fate than if I were taken into captivity. See, the east begins to warm into a rosy color; it will soon be day. Will they leave us then, do you think?”
He folded her hand in his own. “Alaine, so brave thou art. No, they will not, I think. They are not all Indians.”
The gray light was beginning to steal over the earth, and they could dimly distinguish the faces of their enemies. In the party were included a number of coureurs de bois and a few adventurous young Frenchmen. Alaine looking out upon them as they held their parley, grasped Jeanne’s arm with a quick exclamation. “He is there! Ah, me! Again, again! Jeanne, Lendert, do you see him? It is François Dupont!”
“Ah-h!” came a savage growl from Lendert, as he patted his musket softly. “So, then, I have double need to fight.”
“It will be my dead body alone that he possesses,” said Alaine, resolutely.
“And it will be over my dead body that he treads to reach yours,” returned Lendert.
And now Joachim van der Deen strode up. “We have very little water,” he said. “The attack was a surprise and the supply was short. It has given out before we knew it.”