“Now is my chance,” said Dan to himself, and, opening the door cautiously, he made a dash for the pistol and snatched it from its hiding-place.  As he was leaping back to the closet, he saw the bayberry candle lying on the hearth, and in that instant a wonderful idea flashed into his mind.  He picked up the candle, lit it from the flames, and scurried back to his hiding-place just as the legs of an Indian appeared at the top of the ladder.  He shut the door swiftly behind him, and, giving the candle to Nancy, told her to set it inside the pumpkin.  Crawling to the other end of the closet, Nancy did as she was bid, while Dan, with his eye at the peep-hole, watched the two Indians drag poor Zeb between them down the ladder and out the door.

Eager to see where they went, Dan climbed up to the little window of the closet and peered out into the night.  By the moonlight he could see the two men dragging Zeb in the direction of the straw-stack.  They were having a hard time of it, for Zeb struggled fiercely, and they had their guns and the tankard to take care of as well, and in addition, to Dan’s horror, one of them was waving a burning brand which he had snatched from the fire in passing!  Dan trembled so with excitement that he nearly fell from his perch, but kept his wits about him.  “Give me the pumpkin,” he said to Nancy, and when she reached it up to him, he set the lurid, grinning face in the window.  “Now the pistol,” he said, and, sticking the muzzle through the opening beside the jack-o’-lantern, he fired it into the air.

The shot was answered by a chorus of yells from the three figures by the straw-stack.  Scared out of their wits by the unexpected shot and by the frightful apparition which suddenly glared at them out of the darkness, the Indians took to their heels and ran as only Indians can run, dragging poor Zeb with them.

“They ’re gone,” shouted Dan, dropping to the floor, “but they ’ve set the straw-stack afire!”

[Illustration]

By the dim light of the jack-o’-lantern grinning in the window, he found the catch of the door, and the two children burst out of the closet.  Seizing a bucket of water which stood by the hand-basin in the corner, Dan dashed out of doors, followed by Nancy, whose fear of Indians was now overmastered by fear of fire.  If their beautiful new house should be burned!  She ran to the well-sweep, and while Dan worked like a demon, stamping on burning straws with his feet, and pouring water on the spreading flames, she swiftly plunged first one bucket, then another, into the well and filled Dan’s pail as fast as it was emptied.  In spite of these heroic efforts the fire spread.  All they could do was to keep the ground wet about the stack and watch the flying sparks lest they set fire to the house.  Over the lurid scene the jack-o’-lantern grinned down at them until the candle sputtered and went out.

[Illustration]