Yet, swift as he had been, one eye was quick enough to send an arrow upon its errand. The shaft struck the outstretched arm of the scout just as his finger pulled the trigger of his weapon, and the shock destroyed his aim.
Having made this daring move, however, and believing that death must follow the deed, Buffalo Bill dropped his left hand upon his second pistol, determined to press the fight, kill Bennett, and die as had the brave man at his feet—fighting to the last!
Maddened with rage and thirsting for the life of his foe, Boyd Bennett shouted to his warriors to rush upon the scout and take him alive that he might end his career by cruel torture. But suddenly a slender form darted before the red braves, and, with arrow set in readiness to let fly, the White Antelope thrust herself between the white man and the reds who would have seized him.
“Let the Sioux braves hold their hands. The White Antelope commands it!”
Like one man the reds halted, and even the renegade shrank back a step, gazing in fear and wonder on the apparition of the beautiful girl.
Buffalo Bill, too, gazed upon the chief’s daughter in amazement. He knew now that the arrow he drew from the wound in his right forearm had been driven home by the girl; yet now she stood between him and his foes.
Her attitude evidently astonished Bennett as much as it did Cody himself, for the renegade cried:
“Why has the White Antelope become the friend of the slayer of her people? The man she shelters is Pa-e-has-ka, the Long Hair.”
“The arrow of the White Antelope brings blood from the arm of Pa-e-has-ka. Is that the way in which a Sioux shows friendship?” asked the young girl scornfully.
“Then the White Antelope yields the paleface foe to the medicine chief of her tribe?”