About midnight the Indians stealthily boarded their canoes and cautiously, but confidently, swept towards her with muffled paddles.

The _Gladwyn_ was ready for them.

Not a sound broke the silence of the night as the Indians approached the schooner; when suddenly the clang of a hammer against the mast echoed over the calm waters, the signal to the soldiers in the hold.

The Indians were almost on their prey; but before they had time to utter the war-whoop, the soldiers had come up and had attacked the savages with bullets and cannon shot.

Shrieks of death arose amid the din of the firing and the splash of swimmers hurriedly making for the shore from the sinking canoes.