dog” was turned on its swivel and directed at another rush of Indians.  Bang! and the bullets, chainlinks, and bits of iron ploughed through the ranks of the enemy.  The Indians never lived who could stand in the face of well-aimed cannon-shot.  They fell back.  The settlers, inspired, carried beyond themselves by the heroism of a girl, fought as they had never fought before.  Every shot went to a redskin’s heart, impelled by the powder for which a brave girl had offered her life, guided by hands and arms of iron, and aimed by eyes as fixed and stern as Fate, every bullet shed the life-blood of a warrior.

Slowly and sullenly the red men gave way before that fire.  Foot by foot they retired.  Girty was seen no more.  Fire, the Shawnee chief, lay dead in the road almost in the same spot where two days before his brother chief, Red Fox, had bit the dust.  The British had long since retreated.

When night came the exhausted and almost famished besiegers sought rest and food.

The moon came out clear and beautiful, as if ashamed at her traitor’s part of the night before, and brightened up the valley, bathing the Fort, the river, and the forest in her silver light.

Shortly after daybreak the next morning the Indians, despairing of success, held a pow-wow.  While they were grouped in plain view of the garrison, and probably conferring over the question of raising the siege, the long, peculiar whoop of an Indian spy, who had been sent out to watch for the approach of a relief party, rang out.  This seemed a signal for retreat.  Scarcely had the shrill cry ceased to echo in the hills when the Indians and the British, abandoning their dead, moved rapidly across the river.

After a short interval a mounted force was seen galloping up the creek road.  It proved to be Capt.  Boggs, Swearengen, and Williamson with seventy men.  Great was the rejoicing.  Capt.  Boggs had expected to find only the ashes of the Fort.  And the gallant little garrison, although saddened by the loss of half its original number, rejoiced that it had repulsed the united forces of braves and British.

CHAPTER XV.

Peace and quiet reigned ones more at Ft.  Henry.  Before the glorious autumn days had waned, the settlers had repaired the damage done to their cabins, and many of them were now occupied with the fall plowing.  Never had the Fort experienced such busy days.  Many new faces were seen in the little meeting-house.  Pioneers from Virginia, from Ft.  Pitt, and eastward had learned that Fort Henry had repulsed the biggest force of Indians and soldiers that Governor Hamilton and his minions could muster.  Settlers from all points along the river were flocking to Col.  Zane’s settlement.  New cabins dotted the hillside; cabins and barns in all stages of construction could be seen.  The sounds of hammers, the ringing stroke of the axe, and the crashing down of mighty pines or poplars were heard all day long.