Part 60 (1/2)

A volley rang from the besieged and a moment's silence followed. Their first shots had gone wild and not a marine had fallen. They had reached the door and their sledge hammers were raining blows on its solid timbers. An incessant fire poured from the portholes which Brown had cut through the walls. The men were so close to the door his shots were not effective.

Brown ordered one of his prisoners, Captain Dangerfield, a clerk of the Armory Staff, to secure the fastenings. Dangerfield slipped the bolts to their limit and stood watching his chance to throw them and admit the marines.

Brown ordered him back. He retreated a few feet and watched the bolts, as the blows rained on the door.

Stuart had slipped into the fight. He called to Green.

”The hammers are too light. There's a big ladder outside. Get it and use it as a battering ram.”

With a shout the marines seized the ladder, five men on a side, and drove it with tremendous force against the door. The first blow s.h.i.+vered a panel.

Brown ordered the fire engine rolled against the door. Dangerfield sprang to a.s.sist. He slipped the bolt out instead of in! The next rush of the ladder drove the door against the engine, rolled it back a foot and made a small opening through which Lieutenant Green forced his way.

The marines crowded in behind him. Green sprang on the engine with drawn sword and looked for Brown. A shower of bullets greeted him. Yet the miracle happened. Not one touched him. He recognized Colonel Was.h.i.+ngton, leaped from the engine and rushed to his side.

On one knee, a few feet to his left, knelt a man with a carbine in his hand pulling the lever to reload.

Colonel Was.h.i.+ngton waved his arm.

”That's Osawatomie.”

The Lieutenant sprang twelve feet at him. He gave a quick underthrust of his sword, struck him midway of the body and raised the old man completely from the ground. He fell forward with his head between his knees. Green clubbed his sword and rained blow after blow on his head.

The men who watched the scene supposed that he had split the skull. Yet he survived. Green's first sword thrust had struck the heavy leather belt and did not enter the body. The sword was bent double. The clubbed blade was too light. It had made only superficial wounds.

As the marines pressed through the opening the first man was shot dead.

The second was wounded in the face. The men who followed made short work of the fight. They bayoneted a raider under the engine and pinned another to the wall.

The fight had lasted but three minutes.

Brown lay on the ground wounded. His son, Oliver, was dead. His son, Watson, was mortally wounded. All the rest were dead or prisoners, save seven who made good their escape with Cook and Owen Brown into the hills of Pennsylvania.

Colonel Lee entered the Engine House and greeted Was.h.i.+ngton.

”You are all right, sir?”

”Sound as a dollar, Colonel Lee. The d.a.m.ned old fool's had me penned up here for two days. I'm dry as a powder horn and hungry as a wolf. Nothing to eat, and nothing to drink, but _water out of a horse-bucket_!”

Green faced his Colonel and saluted. He glanced at the prostrate prisoners.

”See that their wounds are dressed immediately. Give them good food, and take them as quickly as possible to the jail at Charlestown under heavy guard. See that they are not harmed or insulted by the people.”

Lee turned sadly to his friend.

”Colonel Was.h.i.+ngton, the thing we have dreaded has come. The first blow has been struck. The Blood Feud has been raised.”

CHAPTER x.x.xI

On the surface only was the Great Deed a failure. Not a single pike had been thrust into a white man's breast by his slave. Not a single torch had been applied to a Southern home. His chosen Captains never pa.s.sed the sentinel peak into Fauquier county. The Black Bees had not swarmed.