When he reached a clear track, numerous shots followed, and the mob thinking him severely wounded jeered and shouted triumphantly; while he crouched behind a tree, rolled his great eyes, nodded his woolly head, and muttered audibly as he turned up the leg of his trousers, “It only just scalped my leg, af’er all.”
“What better fun do you want than that, boys? This is fun! ha! ha! ha! Let’s let ’em all go, and shoot after ’em like rabbits,” cried a mere boy.
“Oh, no! you’ve done enough for to-night. Now let these prisoners go.”
“Yes, let these prisoners go,” chimed in another.
“Let’s pile ’em up like frogs and shoot into ’em,” said another, with an oath that should make the blood curdle; while still another said, “No don’t do that, but let ’em go and don’t shoot after ’em.”
“Oh, no, we ought not to leave none to tell the tale. Let’s kill ’em all!”
“We came out for fun; now let’s have it, and not give up so,” said a very young man, a minor.
“If we kill them all, there’ll be nobody left to tell the tale; and if we leave anybody, they’ll go and testify against us; and I tell you we might as well make a sure thing of this,” was repeatedly reiterated.
“Oh, let them go,” said a new speaker. “Let us swear them before they go, not to tell anybody, nor anything about it.”
After much discussion, this counsel prevailed.