Doc there discovered that the attacking party was gradually closing up towards the armory, and he immediately descended again. He found the men still talking, and seeming to have become accustomed to the straggling shots that occasionally visited them. “I think if I _is_ to go, I’d send some of ’em ahead o’ me if I had a gun,” said Pompey Conner, “but I don’t mean to go if I can help it.” “Yo’re mighty quiet, Watta,” said Doc. “What’s the use of talking? Better be shooting. It’s a pity we cannot clear out all that vermin.” (With a gesture of disgust.) Half an hour more of irregular firing against the brisk one from outside, (where the enemy continued to approach,) and a voice was heard there: “William McFadden, go across the river and bring two kegs of powder, and we’ll blow this building up.” “Bring me some long arms, too—two cannon—I can’t drive these niggers out with small arms.” Only Captain Doc caught the order fully, but he recognized the voices respectively of Colonel Pickens (probably a descendant of a valiant Colonel Pickens, who, in the early days of the State’s history, drove a large party of Indians from their homes. They took refuge in a deserted house near Little River in the present County of Abbeville, near Aiken, Pickens _burned them there_. They died without a murmur; the few who attempted to escape were driven back or shot by the surrounding riflemen. The next day Captain William Black, in going from Miller’s Block-house, on the Savannah River, heard a chain rattling near the ruins. He paused, and found a white neighbor baiting his wolf trap with a piece of one of the dead Indians.” _History of the Upper Counties of South Carolina_ by J. H. LOGAN, A. M. pp 67-68), Baker and the gallant General, and sprung upon the roof again, but soon hastened down, and quietly slipped from the hall down the stairs of his private apartments, and so out upon the street. Aided by the darkness and his own dark skin, and some confusion just commencing in the hitherto orderly ranks of the enemy, he soon found the weakest point in the surrounding force. Re-entering the hall with hammer, saw and nails from his own ample supply, he tore down boards from a rough partition there, and constructed a rude ladder. This he fastened securely to the sill of one of the rear windows of the hall. By this time the men had become thoroughly alarmed; and, but for the strong controlling influence of their Captain, a panic must have occurred. In his immediate presence, however, they were yet controllable.