"What would you like to do?" I asked.
"Does a soldier choose his duty, sir?" was the reply, uttered with some dignity.
"Not usually, Sergeant, it is true. I have a very important thing for you to do—something for which I was just intending to look you up. Go and find Clary, and tell him to help you carry several armfuls of hay from the stack to the right of the slope. Make a heap, so that when it is lighted it will illuminate the approach from the creek. Ask Mr. Hopkins if he has any kerosene or other inflammable stuff to sprinkle on the hay and make it flash up quickly. Then throw up a shelter in which you can lie and be ready to light the hay when signalled.
"Yes, sir. Thank you. I'll attend to everything."
Not more than ten minutes had elapsed when the boy sergeant returned and reported that the bundle of hay was placed and a shelter constructed.
"Mr. Hopkins has one gallon of axle grease," said he, "two quarts of spirits of turpentine, and a pint of alcohol."
"Excellent. Mix the alcohol and turpentine, and sprinkle the liquid and grease on the hay. Then place yourself in the shelter, and when you see a light flash from the west window of the house light your bonfire."
"I'll do so, sir," and the boy ran away in the darkness.
Eight men were placed in each building, three on the threatened flank and two on the other. An hour had passed after completing our preparations, when we became aware of a considerable force approaching from the left. In fact, the enemy took pains to have us know of this movement by breaking into whoops, which we recognized to be those of the terrible Apaches. Not a sound came from the creek. I strained my eyes in that direction, eager to catch sight of any movement through the water toward the slope. The pool before the notch in the bank was calm, and the reflection of the starlit sky could be seen in its surface. On the shore beyond nothing was visible in the black darkness beneath the pendulous branches of the willows. At last I saw the fixed reflections of the stars in the surface of the pool diffuse themselves into myriads of sparkling atoms. A considerable body of Indians must be in the water, but none were in sight. Yes; they were crossing in two columns, to the right and left of the notch, concealed by the high shore, and would shortly unite and charge up the slope. I sent Baldwin to the stable to tell the men there that the Apaches were coming, and to be on the alert.
The whoops of the flanking party redoubled, and were accompanied by a desultory firing, which the three men opposing them answered in the same way. Then I saw the sparkling water of the pool cut off from my sight, and knew that a body of men stood on the slope between us and the creek.