"Then what is to be done?" and in her distress Susan leaped down from the platform to approach her cousin.
"Better stay where you are!" the lad cried, warningly. "I don't suppose it will make any great difference to us, and yet we should know if the Frenchmen come ashore after seeing the fire."
The girl returned immediately to her station, and even though he was at a considerable distance from her, Mark could hear the choking sob which escaped her lips.
"Keep up a stout heart, Sue; we can make a last stand inside the house."
"Ay, Mark; but it will be the last!"
The lad made no reply; he stood at some distance from the palisade as if trying to decide upon a course of action, and while he thus remained irresolute his mother came from the house.
There was no need that she ask for information; the blaze was so bright by this time that it must have been seen by those on the vessel, and Mistress Pemberton inquired in a low tone, but with no tremor in her voice:
"Are the logs dry?"
"Ay, mother; but it will be some time before the flames can eat in very deeply. We've got fifteen or twenty minutes yet."
"What is to be done?"