“I knowed it! I knowed it!” cried Doc Bell. “Bloody work’s goin’ on hyar, an’ I’ve been sp’ilin’ fur a fight. Now look to yer rifles fur the last time!”
Creeping forward they beheld at least forty savages grouped at some distance before the mouth of the cave. These Indians were listening to the harangue of a tall chief, standing in the broad glare of the fire which they had kindled near the aperture.
Stretched upon the ground, as motionless as stricken statues, lay seven warriors, who had fallen beneath the rifles of the besieged, and the chief was firing the hearts of the savages, who seemed inclined to relinquish the conflict.
“Shall the hunted dogs drive the hunters from their kennel?” he cried, “and shall Segowatha sleep unavenged? The pale dog whose she whelp slew our great chief is in our power, if we but stretch forth our hands and take him. And those who fight with him are enemies to Pontiac’s red war-dogs. Warriors, will you be squaws? Shall Tall Hickory go back to his people and say his men slunk like whipped hounds from a hole in the ground?”
The close of the speech had the desired effect; a chorus of hideous yells followed it, and the red demons demanded to be led once more to the conflict.
“Ready,” whispered Doc Bell, with his eyes fastened upon the red avengers. “If they rush into ther cave in a body we must foller suit. Ha! there they go—determined to do or die, an’ I calkilate some on ’em will die.”
Unmindful of the doom that surely awaited him, Tall Hickory threw himself before the mad warriors and sprung toward the gaping mouth of the cave. He reached it, when the muffled reports of two rifles broke the suspense, and with a yell he reeled from the death-opening.
“Now let them hev it!” cried Bell, and a second later three rifles cracked.
A trio of Indians tottered against their fellows, and, ere they could touch the ground, the giant hunter was dashing toward the besiegers with uplifted rifle.
“I’m hyar! ye red devils, I am!” he yelled. “Hyar’s Doc Bell what’s sp’ilin’ fur a fight; an’ now let ’im hev a fair shake.”