as rapidly as we could lay hands to weapons, seeing nothing but the dim outline of gray-clad men, surging madly toward us, or hurled back by the flame of our guns.  It was hell, pandemonium, a memory blurred and indistinct; men, stricken to death, whirled and fell, others ran screaming; they stumbled over prostrate bodies, and cursed wildly in an effort to advance.  Now it was the sharp spit of revolvers, cracking in deadly chorus.  All I knew occurred directly before me.  A dozen or fifteen leaped to the porch floor, swinging a huge log against the barricaded door.  I heard the crash of it as it fell inward, the cry of men underneath.  There was a rush of feet behind; the flame of revolvers seemed to sear my face, and the log lay on the porch floor, dead men clinging to it, and not a living gray-jacket showing under the smoke.

CHAPTER XXXIII

MISS BILLIE REAPPEARS

I was leaning against the side wall, aware I had been wounded yet scarcely feeling the pain of it, an empty revolver in each hand, blue smoke curling from the muzzles.  For the moment I could not comprehend what had actually occurred—­that, for the second time, we had driven them; that we still held the house, now fairly encircled by dead bodies.  Then the truth dawned, and I gazed almost blindly about on the ruck, and into the faces of the men nearest me.  I hardly recognized them, blackened by powder, with here and there a blood stain showing ghastly.  The door was crushed in, splintered by the heavy log, the end of which still projected through, and beneath it three men lay motionless.  I saw others between where I stood and the stairs, one leaning against the wall, his blood dyeing the carpet, another outstretched upon the steps.  All this came to me in a glance, my head reeling; I felt no power to move, no ability to think.  Then Miles’ voice at my very ear aroused me.

“Are you hurt, Lieutenant?  Here, let me see.”

I stared at him, and seemed to come back to life again with a start.

“No, nothing serious, Sergeant.  The door must have struck me as it fell—­my whole left side and arm are numb.  We drove them, didn’t we?”

“You can bet we did, sir, but my fellows got here just in time.  They didn’t make much of a fight along my side, so when I heard that door crash we come a-runnin’.”

“Oh, it was you then.  That’s about the last I remember.  Where is their reserve?  Didn’t they come in?”

“I guess not,” peering out through the opening.  “There’s no signs of ‘em, so far as I can see, but there ain’t no air, an’ the smoke hangs close to the ground.”