The Indians turned upon the mad hunter with a yell, and the next instant his heavy rifle stretched a Miami on the sward, while others were shrinking from the second blow.
“Back! back!” he yelled. “I’m yer master, I am. I’ve whipped ye on the Miami, an’ I kin whip ye hyar. There! you’ll never chase buffler ag’in!”
He rained his blows right and left, and beside him, ably seconding his death-work, fought Kate Blount and the young Peoria. The trader’s daughter resembled some queen of tragedy. Her long tresses had escaped from the backwoods comb, and streamed down her back in wanton abandon, as her body swayed to and fro under the blows she delivered with clubbed rifle.
The savages soon recovered the equilibrium lost by the trio’s unexpected attack, and, with thinned ranks, but more infuriated than ever, returned to the combat, and hemmed our friends in on all sides.
“Fight like catamounts!” yelled giant Doc Bell, above the din of battle, as he hurled a savage, who was about to fell the brave girl, to the earth. “Snakes an’ lizards, but this is a tight place; but they can’t whip us—never!”
The savages felt certain of victory, for their faces were flushed with anticipated triumph, and they contracted their ranks and rushed upon the defiant trio with deafening yells.
But suddenly three forms sprung from the mouth of the cave, and the Indians discovered that they possessed a trio of new antagonists!
Bob Somerville, Nehonesto, and Ulalah had joined our friends, and before the six at last the red-skins gave way!
“Boy!” cried Bell, springing to his protege, and grasping his hand, “I thought ye war a ghost when ye darted from ther cave, but thank fortin’ ye’re flesh an’ blood! We thought ye an’ Nehonesto an’ thet dumb gal war blow’d all to pieces in ther cave.”
“Ours was a narrow escape from death, Doc,” said our hero, as a perceptible shudder swept his frame, “and I am much surprised to see you here. We waited for yourself and Swamp Oak a long time by the black lake, and at last reluctantly reached the conclusion that you had lost your lives through the accursed machinations of Coleola or the Bloodhound. Then we hurried from the cave, and had scarcely reached the forest when a deafening noise assailed and hurled us to the ground, bereft of consciousness. Ulalah led us hither, and after we had greeted Blount, we found that the accursed fiends had trailed us. How they managed to do so, I can not conceive; but they flocked hither like vultures to a carrion feast, and for several hours we fought more like demons than human creatures.”