Three of the savages, concealing, as far as they could, their weapons, approached the fort, under the pretence of bartering some beaver skins.

They met Hossett, the commander, not far from the door.

He entered the house with them, not having the slightest suspicion of their hostile intent.
He ascended some steep stairs into the attic, where the stores for trade were deposited, and as he was coming down, one of the Indians, watching his opportunity, struck him dead with an axe.

They then killed the sick man.

Standing at a cautious distance, they shot twenty-five arrows into the chained mastiff till he sank motionless in death.
The colonists in the field, in the meantime, were entirely unaware of the awful scenes which were transpiring, and of their own impending peril.