It was as good a place as the savages could have selected for an ambush; but that there was really danger there, not one of them suspected.
That, they were looking for in their rear, where the rifle-shots told them that their friends had already encountered it.
Suddenly the settler, who was leading the way, recoiled as though he had received a blow.
As if by magic, a savage sprung up before him, directly in his path.
The next instant a cry of fear broke from the lips of his wife and daughter.
On either side the forms of a half-dozen savages sprung up so close to them that they could almost have touched them by reaching out their hands.
Unmindful of the hopelessness of their situation, the settler raised his rifle and discharged it at the breast of the savage before him.
But the bullet went wide of its mark, for as he pulled the trigger, a savage upon his right caught hold upon it, and attempted to wrest it from his grasp.
But this he did not succeed in doing, and pulling it from the clutches of the savage, the settler brought it down with such force upon his head as to stretch him senseless upon the earth.
Another savage had sprung upon Peleg Parker, and with one hand had grasped his pack on his back, while the other he entwined in his long hair, and attempted to pull him to the earth.