But he was held like a child, and then the keen knife hissed down—then with a horrible thud, the hilt fairly struck against his chest. The long blade had cloven his heart in twain.
Still he made a desperate effort—his death-throe, it was—and freed his throat from the vise-like grip fastened upon it. A single wild yell broke from his lips, and then he sunk a lifeless weight in the arms of his conqueror, a corpse.
Still the alarm was given, and that last cry bade fair to avenge its author's death. For it had reached the ears of the still scuffling savages, and awoke them to their folly.
They recognized the voice of their leader, and one of them had placed the sound; and he quickly communicated it to his comrades. Then with shrill yells of anger they sprung forward, eager to assist or avenge their chief, as the case might be.
"Put the gal down, Jack," muttered Tobe Castor—for it was indeed him—speaking in a quick tone. "The imps is a comin' hot fut. Let the women hunker down cluss ahind the log. It's fight now, an' we'll hev our hands full 'thout them!"
The trio—Castor, Wilson and Stevens—drew together, the better to meet the shock they knew must soon come. They could not avoid it by flight; that course would be certain destruction, as they well knew.
The three women had been placed in a clump of bushes bordering and overhanging a large fallen tree and against this, on the opposite side, the men backed, as by it they secured themselves from being assailed upon all sides at the same time. Tobe again spoke:
"Fire as I do, an' then drap down on yer faces. Ef they shoot at the bleeze, thet'll mebbe save us. Then do the best you know how, with cold steel an' clubbed rifles, ef so be they make a rush."
There was no time for further instructions, if such had been needed. But the others knew what lay before them well enough. They knew it would probably result in a hand-to-hand combat, that could scarcely end otherwise than in their destruction. And yet they did not flinch. They had dear and helpless ones to fight for, as well as their own lives.
The yelling red-skins came on at full speed, until within a short distance of the borderers, when they abruptly paused; the ominous stillness awed them. They could not comprehend it.