range.

Down lower and lower swung the three youths, and presently they came to a point beyond which Dick deemed it not prudent to test the strength of the wood. They were now within perhaps nine or ten feet of the bottom of the gulch. “When I count three, let go and drop, boys,” ordered Dick. “The fall won’t hurt us,” he added encouragingly.

One.

Two.

Three.

The boys let go at the same moment and down they dropped, striking on the rocks of the gulch-bottom with considerable force, and dropping to their hands and knees, but they were not injured, excepting that they were jarred somewhat.

Then the Indians repeated their wild yells, and two of them began climbing the same tree, it having sprung back to its original, more nearly perpendicular, position. It was evidently the intention of the redskins to duplicate the feat of the youths.

“Quick, let’s run down the gulch, till we come to a place where we can climb the wall,” ordered Dick.

“Look!” suddenly yelled Tom, pointing up the gulch in the direction they had before noticed the cloud denoting an impending storm.

Dick and Ben looked, and saw a wondrous sight, a wall of foaming water coming rushing down the gulch toward them at terrible speed.

“There has been a cloud-burst up the gulch!” exclaimed Dick in dismay. “We will be swept away in that torrent!”

There was no time to say much, let alone do anything, for the torrent was sweeping toward them with the speed of the wind, and as it advanced, it roared like thunder. The youths now saw that there were logs in the advancing waters, swirling and pounding, and grinding against one another.

The Indians that had started to climb the tree had slid back down to the earth, and all stood at the edge of the precipice, staring down upon the youths, whom they doubtless believed to be doomed.

And there was reason for their thinking thus, for there was terrible force in the volume of water sweeping irresistibly upon them.

CHAPTER II

Peaceful Valley

In a beautiful little valley of some three miles in length by perhaps a little less width, several farmers were at work. They were plowing up the ground and getting ready to plant a crop.

Over at one side was a little group of log houses, ten in number, these being the homes of the families living in Peaceful Valley. The settlers had built the houses near together, for protection against the Indians. And in the center of the settlement was a very strong log building, surrounded by a thick stockade wall, with a strong gate, and the building in question was intended as a sort of fort, to retreat to, in case of an overwhelming attack by Indians. In the building there was kept constantly a goodly supply of provisions, so that it would have been possible to stand quite a siege.

When we introduce the scene to the reader’s notice, the farmers were working steadily, and quietly, and while they were on the alert, as was their custom, they were not expecting trouble, for they had not heard of any Indians being in their immediate vicinity, though there had been depredations fifteen or twenty miles farther south.

But suddenly a party of Indians numbering thirty or forty put in an appearance and made an attack on the settlers, who seized their rifles--which they always took to the field with them--and firing at the redskins a few times, they ran to the settlement as fast as possible, the Indians following, yelling in a blood-thirsty manner.

The women and children at the houses had seen what was going on, and had hastened to the fort, carrying such of their household goods as they could manage handily, and they held the gate open for the men to enter. Then, when all were within, the gate was closed quickly, and fastened. The women and younger children entered the building, while the men climbed to a platform that was built along the stockade-wall, on the inside, and perhaps five feet from the top of the wall. From here they could fire over the top of the wall, at the redskins, and then drop down to avoid the arrows of the Indians.

The redskins, finding that to attempt to break down the gate, or to scale the wall would be to lose a number of their braves, turned their attention to the houses, and began helping themselves to the contents. When they had taken everything that they cared for, they set the houses on fire, and the settlers were forced to stand there and see their homes go up in flames.

“The fiends!” growled James Holden, the leader of the colony. “Why couldn’t they have let the houses stand? They got most of our goods. They might have been satisfied with that.”

“They’ll stay till after dark and try to get in here at us, likely,” said Henry Perkins. “I know these Cherokee Injuns. They are mean when they get their mad up, and these seem to be very much in earnest.”

“Yes,” said Holden. “We wounded several of them when they were chasing us into the settlement. This naturally aroused their anger.”

“It was bad enough to have to live in a neighborhood where there are a good many Tories, without having to be bothered with the Injuns too,” said another of the settlers.

“The redcoats have put them up to going on the war-path,” said Perkins. “It was a mean trick to do, to get them started.”

“You’re right,” agreed Holden, “but look at that terribly black cloud over to the north. There is going to be a storm and that right quick or I miss my guess.”

The Indians, having finished setting fire to all the houses, retired to a little distance, squatted down on the ground, and watched the structures burning.

Then, when the buildings had burned down, the redskins began dividing the plunder they had secured from the houses, and when this was finished, they advanced as close to the fort as they dared. Here they stopped and held a council, of some sort, evidently trying to decide upon some plan for getting into the fort and at the settlers.

They talked and gesticulated at a great rate, and were apparently not agreed, or at a loss to determine upon any further procedure.

“I don’t think there is much danger of their making an attack during daylight,” said Holden, when they had watched the redskins a while.

“No, but they’ll try to get into the stockade to-night, without any doubt,” said Perkins. “Unless,” he added “that storm drives them away. Somehow the Indians don’t seem to notice its coming at all.”

“They are lower down in the gulch and perhaps do not see about as well as we do up here,” said another.

The other men all thought the same, but while they did not expect an attack before nightfall, yet they did not relax their vigilance. They kept their eyes on the enemy.

“I wish that General Greene would come down this way, with his army,” said another of the settlers.

“Mebby he will come down here,” said another. “I heerd that he is up in North Caroliny.”

“There are going to be terrible times around in the neighborhood of Ninety-Six, pretty soon, I think,” said Holden. “And it would be a good thing if General Greene came here.”

“He’d put a stop to the Injuns’ doin’s, mighty quick,” said another.

The others agreed that General Greene’s army would be able to put a stop to the depredations of the Indians, and then make it exceedingly hot as well for the redcoats in Ninety-Six and vicinity.

Then they ceased talking for a few minutes, while they watched the redskins, who had taken seats on the ground, with their faces toward the fort. They were about three hundred yards distant, and behind them, at about the same distance, was rough, broken country, with a deep gulch running through it, the mouth of the gulch being almost opposite the Indians’ backs.

Suddenly, one of the settlers, who happened to glance toward the mouth of the gulch, exclaimed,