These preparations made Dave faint at heart.
"They shan't do it! I'll—I'll kill as many of them as I can first," he muttered, and aimed his piece at the head of Falling Star.
Sam Barrington realized his peril as fully as did Dave, and stirred his brain for some means of escape. He remembered that the Indians were exceedingly superstitious and that they hated to have anything to do with a crazy person.
"Ha! ha!" he roared, at the top of his voice, and gave a shrill laugh, long and piercing. "Ha! ha! he! he! So you would light the fires and make of me a candle to light the way. What will Pontiac say to that? Know ye not who he is? He is my grandfather. And the King of France is my father. Ha! ha! Now are you surprised? Try to burn me and the waters of Niagara shall turn back and put out the flames. I am the brother of a great magician and fire cannot touch me." And then he began to sing an old ditty, with the words badly mixed:
"Old Baldy went into the woods,
To shoot a bear,
He met the Injuns, had a fight,
They tried to git his hair.
Bing! bang! went Baldy's gun right quick.