At last Dave caught the noose, and managed, although not without great difficulty, to slide it up his left arm above the elbow. This would leave his hands free to battle with any obstruction which might threaten him in the dangerous passage from the rock to the shore.
"Are you ready to be pulled in?" queried Barringford.
"Yes, but be careful. There's a sharp rock just below this point. I just caught sight of it," answered Dave.
"We'll pull you up stream--if we can," answered the backwoodsman.
In another moment Dave was again in the mad current. Planting their feet firmly between cracks in the rocks on shore, Henry and Barringford pulled in as quickly as possible.
As all had supposed, the current swung Dave down the stream and then flung him up along the rocks lining the bank. Still holding the rope Barringford told Henry to run down and help his cousin out of the water, and this the young soldier did.
Poor Dave was more dead than alive, and for a good half hour felt too weak to move from the river bank. While he was resting, with the others beside him, a small detachment of the English grenadiers came up.
"The battle is over," said one of them, in answer to Barringford's question on that point. "We've whipped 'em finely, and it's doubtful if they ever come back to try it over again."
"If that's the fact, then it means the fall of Fort Niagara," put in Henry. "The commander there has undoubtedly been waiting for reinforcements."
"Well, we're here to make the fort surrender," answered the soldier from England.
The soldiers had some rations with them, including some coffee, and after Barringford had started a fire whereat Dave might dry himself, the youth was given something hot to drink, which did much to revive him.
What Henry had said about the fall of the fort was true. That very evening General Johnson sent a Major Harvey to the commander of the fort, with news of the defeat at the falls and stating that the fort had better surrender at once, otherwise the Indians friendly to the English might take it into their heads to massacre all the French prisoners.
At first Captain Pouchot could not believe that the disaster to the French cause had been so great, and to convince him he was allowed to send an aide into the British camp. The aide reported that the contest was indeed lost, and thereupon, early on the following morning, Fort Niagara surrendered, and six hundred and eighteen officers and men became English prisoners. Later on, the majority of the prisoners were sent to England while the women and the children who had been driven to the fort for protection were, at their own request, allowed to depart for Montreal.