Bullets were pattering among the houses, and in the open spaces inclosed by the walls, two men were wounded already, and the threat had become formidable.
Ross and Shif'less Sol, the best of the woodsmen, soon decided that the shots came from a large tree at the edge of the forest northeast from the stockade, and they were sure that at least a half-dozen warriors were lying sheltered among its giant boughs, while they sent searching bullets into the inclosure.

There had been some discussion about the tree at the time the settlement was built, but expert opinion held that the Indian weapons could not reach from so great a distance, and as the task of cutting so huge a trunk when time was needed, seemed too much they had left it, and now they saw their grievous and perhaps mortal error.
The side of the palisade facing the tree was untenable so long as the warriors held their position, and it was even dangerous to pass from one house to another.

The terrors of the night, weighty because unknown, were gone, but the day had brought with it a more certain menace that all could see.
The leaders held a conference on the sheltered side of one of the houses, and their faces and their talk were full of gloom.

The schoolmaster, Ross and Sol were there, and so were John Ware and Lucy's father.

The schoolmaster, by nature and training a man of peace, was perhaps the most courageous of them all.
"It is evident that those savages have procured in some manner a number of our long-range Kentucky rifles," he said, "but they are no better than ours.