CHAPTER III.
No sooner did these reserves of warriors make their appearance than a sudden wavering was seen in the ranks of the white men, who had hitherto kept well together and fought desperately. It seemed now as though they must be all cut to pieces and destroyed, surrounded as they were by three hundred of picked braves from the Warrior tribe. Aniwee was fighting like a young demon, and Harry and Topsie, as they sought shelter with the others of their party in the rear of the Queen’s toldo, could hear her war cry distinctly above the fierce shouts of the combatants. The colonists were all armed with guns and rifles, but they were at too close quarters with their assailants to make it possible to use them. They had therefore only their swords to depend on, and when these, in some instances, fell shivered from their grasp by the powerful stroke of some Araucanian’s axe, they had only a short stabbing knife, a revolver, and a small hatchet slung at their sides, to fall back upon.
The Araucanians, as we have seen, were all armed with long lances. They were stout, powerful, and ugly customers to encounter when, in serried array and with their lances well set, they swept down upon an enemy. But on this occasion lances were at a disadvantage, hemmed in as the combatants were by rocks, trees, and steep hillsides, where only hand to hand fighting was possible, and the warriors were obliged to have recourse to their short axes and stabbing knives. Already some twenty white men had fallen. Quarter was not asked for, because the Cristianos knew that it would not be given. Had they not been themselves the aggressors, and had they not themselves alone to thank for their present plight? They had come slinking as a fox does at night when he thinks the coast is clear, intent on a brutal and cruel act, and behold their reward!
Suddenly loud cries and shouts resounded through the valley down which Aniwee had charged so furiously, and amidst the din of the combat a few talismanic words brought the Queen and her warriors to attention.
“Help, help! To the rescue of the child Cacique; to the rescue of Guardia!”
An icy chill ran through Aniwee’s heart. Then the baby Queen for whom she was risking her life, the beloved child of her lost Piñone, was a prisoner after all? The thought was maddening; it thrilled her to the quick; it almost unnerved her; it certainly made her lose her presence of mind; it was the means of saving many a white man’s life.
“Hark!” she cried, reining up her horse. “Warriors, the Cacique is in danger. Forward to the rescue!”
Like lightning she had taken her animal by the head, turned it in the direction whence the cries had proceeded, and the next moment she and her warriors were streaming up the valley once more, leaving the Cristianos struck dumb with astonishment. But they soon aroused themselves to the situation as the voice of Inacayal rung out—