slipped from their mutual hands and, sliding over the sill, in another instant was heard rattling through the intervening bushes. Descending upon the ground below, it became the spoil of those without, whose murmurs of gratulation she distinctly heard. But now came the tug of difficulty. The Indian, striving at the entrance, was necessarily encouraged by the discovery that his opponent was not a man, and assured, at the same time, by the forbearance on the part of those within to strike him effectually down from the tree, he now resolutely endeavored to effect his entrance. His head was again fully in sight of the anxious woman—then his shoulders, and, at length, taking a firm grasp upon the sill, he strove to elevate himself by muscular strength so as to secure him sufficient purchase for the entrance at which he aimed.
What could she do—weaponless, hopeless? The prospect was startling and terrible enough, but she was a strong-minded woman, and impulse served her when reflection would most probably have taught her to fly. She had but one resource, and as the Indian had gradually thrust one-hand forward for the hold upon the sill, and raised the other up to the side of the window, she grasped the one nighest to her own. She grasped it firmly with all her might, and to advantage, as, having lifted himself on tiptoe for the purpose of ascent, he had necessarily lost much of the control which a secure hold for his feet must have given him. Her grasp sufficiently assisted him forward to lessen still more greatly the security of his feet, while, at the same time, though bringing him still farther into the apartment, placing him in such a position—half in air—as to defeat much of the muscular exercise which his limbs would have possessed in any other situation. Her weapon now would have been all-important, and the brave woman mentally deplored the precipitancy with which she had acted in the first instance and which had so unhappily deprived her of its use. But self-reproach was
