Casting his glance downwards through the opening,
he beheld five or six savages standing grouped together,
leaning on their guns, and apparently watching some object
above them. This, naturally, drew the corporal's attention
to the same quarter, when to his dismay he found that
the long ladder usually kept at the barn was now resting
against the gable of the house, not three feet from the
right corner of the aperture, through which he gazed. In
an instant it occurred to him that this had been the work
of the Indians, and at once accounted for the grating
sounds that had so often met his ears that night. There
could be no doubt that the plan of the enemy now was to
enter the roof, which could be done by removing part of
the raw buffalo hides of which it was composed. Indeed
it was a slight noise made in the direction of that very
angle of the roof where the ladder now stood, that had
caught his attention on first putting his head through
the aperture while preceding his men. This had suddenly
ceased at the moment when the ladder broke and fell, nor
had there been a repetition of the sound.
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