“Um, Creek no care who see,” stated Running Elk. “Got hill, with ring around him.”
“What’s that?” said Frank, only partly catching the Cherokee’s meaning.
“He means that they’ve got us surrounded,” said Jack Davis. “And he’s right. Just throw a look around.”
Startled, Frank did so; his heart gave a leap and began to beat swifter; from all directions, closing in upon the knoll, were bands of armed savages.
CHAPTER V
THE FIGHT ON THE KNOLL
For a moment or two Frank Lawrence was too startled to speak; but when he could collect his wits his first action was to throw his rifle around in position for use; his second was to look at Jack Davis and the Cherokee hunter.
“Well,” said he, quietly enough, “we seem to be in for it, don’t we?”
“There’s a good hundred of them, all told,” spoke Jack. “I wonder where they all sprang from.”
“Young men,” said Running Elk. “Braves. Old men in council; young men come afterward.”
“That’s it,” cried Jack, grasping at the Cherokee hunter’s meaning. “Weatherford, chief of the Creeks, took his old men forward to hear and talk with Tecumseh and the prophet at the council fire. The young men, or warriors, were left a few days’ march behind; they were on their way to join their chief when we ran into them at the river.”