Captain Saucier fastened the sashes again. He was a crestfallen man. He
had fought Indians with credit, but he was not equal to the weakest
member of his household.
Occasionally the rafters creaked from a blow, and a wave rushed up the
roof.
"It is rising higher," said Peggy.
Angelique wished she had not mentioned Mademoiselle Zhone. Perhaps, when
the colonel had risked his life to bring the sick girl out of a swamped
house, her family might prefer to wait until morning to putting her in
the boat now.
The bells kept ringing, now filling the attic with their vibrations, and
then receding to a faint and far-off clamor as the wind swept by. They
called to all the bluff-dwellers within miles of Kaskaskia.
The children sat down, and leaned their heads against their mother's
knee. The others waited in drawing-room chairs; feeling the weariness of
anxiety and broken domestic habits. Captain Saucier watched for the
return of the boat; but before it seemed possible the little voyage
could be made they felt a jar under the gable window, and Rice Jones's
voice called.
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