Were they surely doomed to death?
It would seem so.
At last the scout cried, chokingly:
“Open the door. We may as well die one way as another. We can’t live longer here.”
At that moment, when all indeed seemed lost; when there appeared no other alternative but to throw themselves out upon the savages, a new sound broke upon their ears.
The floodgates of heaven were at last unloosed, and the rain was descending in torrents.
Never was rain more welcome to human beings than to them.
“Heaven be thanked, we are saved!” cried Sam Wilson, joyously. “The fire can’t stand such a flood as this.”
“That it can’t,” exclaimed the scout. “We’re all right now and the red-skins are balked ag’in.”
For a few moments the rain and the flames fought for the mastery, and then the latter succumbed.