Chapter 29 - Page 2

exercise of sufficient force from without.

To all this arrangement, Joel had been a party, and he knew, as a
matter of course, its strong and its weak points. Seizing a favourable
moment, he had loosened the wedges, leaving them in their places,
however, but using the precaution to fasten a bit of small but strong
cord to the most material one of the three, which cord he buried in the
dirt, and led half round a stick driven into the earth, quite near the
wall, and thence through a hole made by one of the hinges, to the outer
side of the leaf. The whole had been done with so much care as to
escape the vigilance of casual observers, and expressly that the
overseer might assist his friends in entering the place, after he
himself had provided for his own safety by flight. The circumstance
that no one trod on the side of the gateway where the unhung leaf
stood, prevented the half-buried cord from being disturbed by any
casual footstep.

As soon as Joel reached the wall of the Hut, his first care was to
ascertain if he were safe from missiles from the loops. Assured of this
fact, he stole round to the gate, and had a consultation with the
Mohawk chief, on the subject of springing the mine. The cord was found
in its place; and, hauling on it gently, Joel was soon certain that he
had removed the wedge, and that force might speedily throw down the
unhung leaf. Still, he proceeded with caution. Applying the point of a
lever to the bottom of the leaf, he hove it back sufficiently to be
sure it would pass inside of its fellow; and then he announced to the
grave warrior, who had watched the whole proceeding, that the time was
come to lend his aid.

There were a dozen reckless whites, in the cluster of savages collected
at the gate; and enough of these were placed at handspikes to effect
the intended dislodgement. The plan was this: while poles were set
against the upper portion of the leaf, to force it within the line of
the suspended part, handspikes and crowbars, of which a sufficiency had
been provided by Joel's forethought, were to be applied between the
hinge edge and the wall, to cast the whole over to the other side.

Unluckily, Mike had been left at the gate as the sentinel. A more
upfortunate selection could not have been made; the true-hearted fellow
having so much self-confidence, and so little forethought, as to
believe the gates impregnable. He had lighted a pipe, and was smoking
as tranquilly as he had ever done before, in his daily indulgences of
this character, when the unhung leaf came tumbling in upon the side
where he sat; nothing saving his head but the upper edge's lodging
against the wall. At the same moment, a dozen Indians leaped through
the opening, and sprang into the court,