She went on guard as I had suggested, and then it was that Giles March proposed we cut down a dozen or more saplings, laying them in the excavation to form a sort of network which would further protect the roof of our place of refuge, which was now all too insecure, and after this had been done we pushed back as best we might the soil that had been removed. We must have spent not less than half an hour in this labor, and all the while did Esther Hinchman flit here and there through the thicket to make certain there were none of the savages creeping up on us, after which we went back to relieve the anxiety of those who could not fail to be wondering why we lingered so long after having discharged our weapons. Not until giving due warning of our coming did we venture to present ourselves in front of the opening, because in the darkness those who were on guard might well have shot us down for the enemy, and once inside the wounded lads as well as the women insisted on knowing what had taken place, for, as I suspected, they had been filled with keenest fear lest we had come to some harm. I took it upon myself to tell the tale while Mistress Morley and Oscar Stephenson yet remained on duty at the entrance, and it was my desire to do so in order to give full meed of praise to Esther Hinchman, because, except for her courage and quick wit that night, had I been lying on the mountainside stark and cold as was the fiend whom she had sent out of the world. “There is no longer a chimney to our refuge,” I said, having come to an end of my story, “and perchance the time is near at hand when we should make a change of quarters, for I question whether John Butler’s braves will not come back in strong force, believing there are enough of us here to afford them pleasing amusement in the way of torture.” “Shall we go out now?” Mistress Morley asked, as if speaking of making a pleasant jaunt from one dwelling to another, and I replied with a laugh, for my heart was strangely light, having come back to life as it seemed I had: “I wouldn’t care to undertake a journey through the thicket in the darkness, howsoever great might be the peril which threatened, and even when the sun shall rise to-morrow, I am of the belief that either Giles March or I should seek out the remainder of our company before making any change, lest we lose them in the wilderness.” Esther Hinchman was not disposed to set herself up as a heroine, and as soon as we were inside the cave, even while I was telling the story of what she had done, the dear girl went from one to the other of the wounded lads, striving to give them more of comfort or relief. As was but natural, we speculated upon the probable force of the party which had come so near compassing our death, and only then did I remember that Oscar Stephenson and Mistress Morley had fired at the fugitives.