“Maybe they think you Injun; shoot you!” for his keen eye had caught sight of the muzzle of a gun pointing at them from out an aperture in the building. “White chief come soon,” he immediately added. “They no fire at you; see, gun gone.”
Scarcely had he uttered these words, when the outer door opened, and Tom saw his mother standing there, for she had discerned him in the deepening twilight, and recognized him as her son. Tom, with a bound, hastened to her, and as she folded him in her arms, and tenderly kissed him, he inquired,–
“But where is father?”
“Speak softly,” she replied, as she led the way to a bed in a corner of the inner building, on which lay Mr. Jones. “He is wounded,” said she, mournfully, “and is sleeping now. We cannot yet tell how it will turn with him, but hope for the best.”
“But where are the other men?” asked Tom, weeping, for only a few women and children were in sight.
“They deserted us night before last. Our provisions had run low, and the savages had retired to make us think they had left, and the men, half crazed with sleepless nights and scanty food, 222 were deluded by the idea that they might get safely away, and perhaps bring us aid. But, poor things, they were not themselves, and they had gone only a few rods, when they were set upon by the savages, and brutally slaughtered before our eyes. We used our guns on the Indians as well as we could, but found it difficult to prevent them from scaling the building.”
“Did you fire upon them?” asked Tom, wonderingly.
“Yes, my son,” said she, gently; “and last night, knowing how feeble our force must be, they were emboldened to attempt to burn the house. The roof caught in several places, and your father went up and put out the fire at the risk of his life. It was then that he was shot. He had been our main defence from the first, for the Indians were more afraid of his rifle than a dozen of others.”
“But how did you get along after father was disabled?”
“We women loaded, watched, and fired by turns. I do not see how we could have held out an hour longer. Help came just in time.”