However, their voices disclosed their positions, and as Big Moccasin laid his living burden on the ground, Swamp Oak sprung upon him.
The chief uttered a cry of terror, and as he reeled under the strength of his antagonist, a keen blade shot into his breast, and he fell, with a death gurgle, into the water.
Swamp Oak’s work of death was inaugurated and finished in less time than we have recorded it, and, like a lion, he turned to the spot where the helpless renegade lay!
The hunter had shunned the creole for the boat, intent upon saving our heroine.
He knew that Jules Bardue was too weak to resist, and after he had rescued Kate, he would finish one who had already cursed the earth too long with his loathsome presence.
He clutched the canoe as Big Moccasin touched the water, and quickly jerked it toward him, for, unmoored, it had drifted from the bank.
The next minute his long arm shot over the gunwale, and his fingers closed on Kate Blount’s slender arm.
He lifted her from the craft, with a cry of delight; but ere he could gain his feet with his prize, a noise like the explosion of a thousand pounds of powder bewildered his senses, and, with the girl in his arms, he staggered back, bereft of consciousness!
The lake of darkness felt the unseen blow; its sleeping waters sprung into life, and rocked with a hissing noise in their little basin.
For many minutes three forms lay motionless in the gloom, and at last the uplifting of a head was followed by a voice.