As they approached the savages could be seen skulking about to surround the wagon. “Well, Professor, I suppose we shall have to give them a little surprise?”
The Professor smiled, as they crawled up to get a close position. The tactics were now well understood by both, and that was to rush the wagon from all sides, and thus hope, by overwhelming numbers, to succeed.
“The boys are pretty smart, after all,” said the Professor, as he noted the guns at the portholes, and John could hardly refrain from bursting out in laughter at the sight.
At a signal the savages sprang forward, and there was a volley from the fort. “Brave boys,” exclaimed John. “Shall we take a hand?”
“It would do me good to do so; but would it not be better to wait for the next movement on their part. That shot staggered them.”
It was too apparent that the savages had not counted on such a disastrous result of the charge; but they were determined now. As they were springing forward, and before those in the fort had delivered the second volley, the Professor quietly said: “I think we can risk it now.”
Both fired at the same instant, and two of the warriors fell. The attack from the new quarter dumbfounded them. Neither John nor the Professor appeared in the opening, but reloaded as rapidly as possible, and while the boys were immeasurably surprised, kept their wits, and at the order of George, fired a second volley.
This was too much for the natives, and they scampered from the vicinity of the wagon, and away from their lurking enemies. John and the Professor deliberately walked over the intervening space, as the boys cheered them.
The result of the shots, for ten in all had been fired, were four dead and four wounded, two of them so severely that they were unable to move.
