AT SHAFT 11
"I'll risk it, but I must have a horse."
"Take mine. He's at the door,—God speed you." With the word, Jason was in the saddle and away like the wind.
"He can't keep that pace on the bad ground," said young Crofton, as he turned homeward.
At the centre of strife all was still quiet. The fire had burned low, and what remained of it cast only a dull light around. The assailants began to prepare again for action.
"Here, some one take my place at the window," said Sam. He left his post, crept to the door and opened it stealthily, and, dropping on his hands and knees, crawled out into the darkness. In less than five minutes he was back and had resumed his station. His face was expressionless. No one knew what he had done until a new flame shot athwart the darkness, and at sight of it the strikers burst into a roar of rage, Another cabin was burning, and the space about for a hundred yards was as bright as day. In the added light, two or three bodies were distinguishable upon the ground, showing that the shots of the blacks had told. With deep chagrin the strikers saw that they could do nothing while
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