“Yes, we are quite ready,” answered Father Nat. Loïs ate the supper they hastened to place before her, and then told them something of the day’s journey.
“We saw no one on the road,” she said; “it seems difficult to imagine such danger is threatening us.”
“Nevertheless, I have heard sounds in the forest which tell me plainly the Indians are not far off,” said Nathaniel.
“Now,” said Loïs, rising, “I will lie down and sleep for an hour; there is yet time.”
“Do,” said Father Nat, and Loïs went to her own room and knelt beside her white bed and prayed, as she had done all the years of her life, from childhood to womanhood. Then, throwing herself on her bed, she slept.
CHAPTER XIX
THE ATTACK
The lights were extinguished; the inhabitants of the Marshes were apparently sunk in slumber. It was near upon midnight, but the moon was shining so brightly that it seemed almost as if it were daylight.
Loïs had risen, and, standing in the darkness at a window of an upper room at Omega Marsh, looking down into the valley, was almost tempted to think she must have been mistaken, that her interview with Nadjii was an evil dream, the scene was so peacefully lovely. The church spire rose in the midst of the surrounding houses. She knew every one of them; their inhabitants had been familiar to her since her childhood, from the old grandfather to the toddling child she had helped to carry on the road that morning. By the light of the moon and stars she saw the outline of the hills, and farther on the mountain ridges; whilst the river gleamed here and there as it wound through the meadows. But what riveted her gaze was that dark, impenetrable forest. What did it conceal? She knew full well that all around the garden men belonging to the village lay on the ground watching, even as she was watching. Would to God it might be in vain! but Nadjii had spoken, and Loïs had implicit confidence in the Indian woman.
Suddenly, without warning, a loud shout arose. Then Loïs knew the enemy was at hand, and in the space of a few seconds the settlement was surrounded. The Indians poured down into the valley like a flock of locusts. Nat had issued the order that no man was to stir until the savages should have passed the boundaries, and then to fire on them simultaneously. Up towards the Marshes they swarmed, never doubting that the inhabitants were sleeping; but they were soon undeceived—a murderous fire came pouring down upon them. Shrieks, howls of pain and anger, filled the air, and the dark figures, with their waving headgears, leapt the barriers, striking out to the right and left with their murderous hatchets.
To Loïs, as she shrank back, it was as if all the devils of hell had been suddenly let loose. Steadily the fire continued; but so numerous were the assailants, that even as they fell others poured in over them, filling up the gaps. The settlement was surrounded on all sides. The besieged were not long in perceiving this, for the triumphant yells of the red men were heard on every side.