"And Dick and the pilot?"
"They are gone, my lad, the Lord knows where," answered the old hunter, and with his eyes glistening with tears he related the closing scenes of the fight, and how Dick and the pilot were shot and swallowed up in the flood.
"Poor Dick—I have lost in him the pearl, and my dream is fulfilled."
He sank back in weariness and closed his eyes. Suddenly the wounded man started to a sitting position and whispered with excited face:
"The Shawnese. Don't you hear them, Tom, Hunter Tom? They are stealing through the woods and around the house. I hear them. Give me a gun, and we'll defend the cabin."
The effort was too much, and he sank back again on the couch of deerskins in a semi-conscious condition.
Tom, too, had heard something, but it was not the tread of Indians. The next moment there was a shout without and the clatter of approaching horses' feet. 'Twas the settlers.
CHAPTER XXVI
THE RISING