"Ugh!" grunted Hawk Eye. "Slow Dog's trick has failed him. The odds are two to one in our favor." Hardly had he finished speaking when an arrow struck the ledge of rocks behind which they were crouching.
"Slow Dog is no mean marksman," said Raven Wing. "We must not be careless."
As Hawk Eye reloaded his gun, he noticed, in spite of the gathering gloom, blood stains upon the stock. For several moments he regarded them in silence. Then turned to Raven Wing.
"I think I have a plan that will work well," he said. "Come here, Ohitika," he cried, squatting down on the floor of the cave. The faithful dog came fawning to his feet.
"Smell, smell!" he commanded, placing the blood stained gunstock close to the dog's nose.
Ohitika answered with a growl. It was enemy smell to him. He had not forgotten that Slow Dog had kicked him.
"Take your gun and hold the dog by the collar," said Hawk Eye to Raven Wing. Again resting his gun on the ledge of rock, he fired. Before the echoes of the report had died away, a second arrow entered the cave's mouth and struck the rock wall in the rear.
"Come, follow me, before Slow Dog finds time to fit another arrow to his bow," said Hawk Eye.
Raven Wing obeyed. When out of the cave, and to one side of the opening, Hawk Eye seized Raven Wing's loaded gun and gave him his. "Load it," he said in a low voice, grasping the leather thong about Ohitika's neck to give Raven Wing the free use of both hands. Then, like three shadows, the two boys and the dog, glided into the dense darkness. Almost immediately Hawk Eye released his hold upon the dog and whispered, "Go get him! Go get him!"
As Ohitika darted off in the murky darkness, Raven Wing all but tripped over the body of the Chippeway he had killed. Forgetting the urgent need to reach the canoes, he felt with his hand for the Chippeway's scalp lock. Grasping it tightly in his left hand, he deftly circled it at its base with his knife and tore it away.