“Amen,” supplemented Maxwell, and then they rode cautiously forward, the Captain keeping his men at the steady pace at which they had started out. Now and then a stray shot from the farmhouse showed them that Judah was holding his own. The firing increased as they neared the house, coming mainly from the shelter of trees and bushes at the side. Finally it became incessant, and the Captain beckoned to Maybee, after he had halted the column, and they rode cautiously ahead. Soon they returned, and coming to Warren drew him to the flank of the company.
“My boy, you are going under fire. Are you prepared for any happening? Are you all right?”
“All right,” replied Warren.
“Well,” said Captain Brown with a sigh, “shake hands; fire low; look well to the hinder side of your rifle. God bless you!” and he passed forward to the head of the column. The parson went with him.
Maybee was beside himself with excitement over the parson’s rescue.
“Now you’ll see some fun,” said he: and then, all of a sudden the fire of battle caught him and he flew into a sort of frenzy. He rode quickly behind the men, saying in low, concentrated tones: “Give ’em —— boys! Remember our friends they’ve butchered, and our women and little children. Give ’em ——, I say!” Then growing calmer he turned to Warren once more, saying: “Maxwell, I reckon you’ve got as big a score to settle as anyone of us.” Then he, too, wrung Warren’s hand and rode away to the head of the column.
A man fell dead in the Brown ranks. The Rangers now advanced in solid column to meet them. Then came the order to charge, and with a wild yell the pent-up excitement of the men broke forth and pell-mell they hurled themselves upon the foe.
Then ensued a wild scene; a turmoil of shots, cries, groans and shrieks—pandemonium on earth. Maxwell very soon found himself in the thickest of it, off his horse and doing his part in a fierce hand-to-hand encounter with one who had fired a pistol straight at him. The bullet flew wide of the mark and in an instant he had flung the snarling demon down and had hurled himself upon him. They struggled fiercely back and forth tearing at each other with all their might. Gideon Holmes’ long, lithe fingers were sunk deep in his throat in an endeavor to force him to release his hold. With a mighty effort, Maxwell brought the butt of his pistol down on his enemy’s face in a smashing blow. At last he had caught the full spirit of the fiercest; the blood mounted to his brain, and with ungovernable rage, thinking only of the sufferings he had endured in the dreadful time of imprisonment, he continued his rain of blows upon his prostrate foe until the very limpness of the inert body beneath him stayed his hand.
Through the smoke he saw Captain Brown and Parson Steward and Ebenezer Maybee fighting like mad, with blazing rifles, and deep curses from Maybee mingling with the hoarse shouting of passages of Scripture by the parson.
“Behold, the uncircumcised Philistine, how he defies the armies of the living God.” And again—“Let no man’s heart fail because of him; thy servant will go and fight with this Philistine;” “Fear not, neither be thou dismayed.”