They came en masse, rushing recklessly forward across the open space, pressing upon each other in headlong desire to be first, yelling like fiends, guns brandished in air, or spitting fire, animated by but one purpose--the battering of a way into that cabin.

I know not who led them--all I saw was a mass of half-naked bodies bounding toward me, long hair streaming, copper faces aglow, weapons glittering in the light.

Yes, I saw more--the meaning of that fierce rush; the instrument of destruction they brought with them.

It was there in the center of the maelstrom of leaping figures, protected by the grouped bodies, half hidden by gesticulating red arms--a huge log, borne irresistibly forward on the shoulders of twenty warriors, gripped by other hands, and hurled toward us as though swept on by a human sea.

Again and again I fired blindly into the yelping mob; I heard the crack of Tim's rifle echoing mine, and the chug of lead from without striking the solid logs.