The shiftless one swung his rifle butt, and the dog fell unconscious.
"I hated to do it, but I had to," he murmured.

The next moment Henry was knocking at the door.
"Up! Up!" he cried, "the Indians are at hand, and you must run for your lives!" How many a time has that terrible cry been heard on the American border! The sound of a man's voice, startled and angry, came to their ears, and then they heard him at the door.
"Who are you ?" he cried.

"Why are you beating on my door at such a time ?" "We are friends, Mr.Standish," cried Henry, "and if you would save your wife and children you must go at once! Open the door! Open, I say!" The man inside was in a terrible quandary.

It was thus that renegades or Indians, speaking the white man's tongue, sometimes bade a door to be opened, in order that they might find an easy path to slaughter.

But the voice outside was powerfully insistent, it had the note of truth; his wife and children, roused, too, were crying out, in alarm.