Twice Eph saw an arrow speed from behind this shelter and bury itself in the timbers upon the edge of a port-hole. Then a cry told that a third shot had flown through and found a mark.
“Through the arm,” said the man who had spoken to Eph. “That varmint out there has an eye like a hawk.”
Carefully Eph watched the uprooted stump and studied the method of the savage sharpshooter behind it. Never once did he catch sight of any part of the Shawnee; not for an instant did even so much as a tip of a plume show above his breastwork. Satisfying himself as to this, Eph took to examining other parts about the tree butt. A stirring in the growth about its largest end took his eye; the movement was of the slightest, but the eyes of the boy were fixed upon it with all the eagerness of a practiced hunter.
The shadows from the trees had grown enormously; but the great red sun sent slanting bars of light through the maze of trunks here and there; and one of these caught a metal point just as it was steadily poised for a shot from behind the butt, and the glitter attracted the eye of Eph. The brain of the boy worked like lightning; from the position of the arrow-head he calculated the position of the arm that held the bow. The black eye of Jerusha turned grimly upon the spot in which Eph’s judgment fixed the Shawnee’s arm; then the rifle spoke. A cry of pain made answer and an arrow flew wild, burying its point in the ground.
“I reckon that Injun will need some care and considerable rest before he’s much of a success as a fancy shot in the future,” remarked young Taylor, with a grin at his neighbor.
“That was a good shot,” said the man. “I sort of felt that Injun was behind the stump there; but I couldn’t get any signs of him nohow.”
Darkness drew on; supper was cooked and eaten in the cabin; part of the defenders sat down to the meal while a part manned the port-holes; when the first lot had satisfied their hunger they changed places with the watchers. But with the coming of the night the attack of the Shawnees did not abate; the cracking of their rifles went on, the whizzing of the arrows continued. Finally there came a flare through the darkness; it was as though a ball of fire had described an arch, and then fallen with a thud on the roof.
The faces of the settlers blanched.
“A fire arrow!” said one.
“The varmints are trying to burn the house over our heads,” cried another.