The Cheyennes were three to one, and our friends fought with the desperation of despair—of madmen. Several savages went down, but the death of each one made the survivors all the more desperate; and presently Walter Lyman fell unconscious from a blow on the head, and Willis Armond received a severe wound on the arm. Defeat and death stared our friends in the face—they were being gradually overpowered—the savages were closing in upon them—another moment—but hark! what sound was that? Was it the voice of doom?
CHAPTER IV.
THE MASTER OF THE EAGLE.
It was the wild scream of a bird that fell upon the ears of the combatants, but at the next instant a horseman dashed wildly in among the savages, a drawn saber in hand. And so swift did the stranger swing the polished weapon right and left upon the tufted skulls of the red-skins that it seemed a broad sheet of flame. Nor did this strange man come alone to the rescue. A large, tame gray eagle accompanied him, and the fierce bird seemed inspired with the same warlike spirit of its master. Down into the savages’ faces, striking with talon, beak and wing, swooped the great bird with a scream, tearing and lacerating the flesh and eyes at every stroke.
The scale of battle was turned as if by magic. The savages, defeated and terrified, fled into the shelter of the forest, pursued by Ebony and the stranger’s fierce bird, leaving half their number behind, dead.
All eyes were now turned upon their strange deliverer.
He was a young man, not more than thirty. In stature he was about five feet six inches. His figure was firmly knit but flexible; and every movement supple, easy and graceful. His hair was of a dark brown, as was also his beard that in a great measure concealed his face and hung to the pommel of his saddle. A few premature wrinkles were faintly traced about his eyes.
A tunic of blue velveteen ornamented with yellow fringe and confined at the waist by a leather belt, buck-skin trowsers, buck-skin leggings and moccasins, and a gray felt hat constituted his garb.
A saber, a brace of revolvers in his belt, and a rifle that was swung at his back by means of a strap passing over his shoulder, were the weapons he carried.
The animal he rode was a black, mettlesome mustang with arched neck and flashing eyes, clear limbs and muscular proportions.