savage had his orders to take the white men alive;
Hamilton's larger reward depended on this.

Right on they came, as fast as their nimble legs could carry them,
yelling like demons; and they reached the grove before the three white
men could reload their guns. Then every warrior took cover behind a
tree and began scrambling forward from bole to bole, thus approaching
rapidly without much exposure.

"Our 'taters is roasted brown," muttered Oncle Jazon. He crossed
himself. Possibly he prayed; but he was priming his old gun the next
instant.

Kenton fired again, making a hurried and ineffectual attempt to stop
the nearest warrior, who saved himself by quickly skipping behind a
tree. Beverley's gun snapped, the flint failing to make fire; but Oncle
Jazon bored a little hole through the head of the Indian nearest him;
and then the final rush was made from every direction.

A struggle ensued, which for desperate energy has probably never been
surpassed. Like three lions at bay, the white men met the shock, and
lion-like they fought in the midst of seventeen stalwart and determined
savages.

"Don't kill them, take them alive; throw them down and hold them!" was
Long-Hair's order loudly shouted in the tongue of his tribe.

Both Kenton and Jazon understood every word and knew the significance
of such a command from the leader. It naturally came into Kenton's mind
that Hamilton had been informed of his visit to Vincennes and had
offered a reward for his capture. This being true, death as a spy would
be the certain result if he were taken back. He might as well die now.
As for Beverley, he thought only of Alice, yonder as he had left her, a
prisoner in Hamilton's hands, Oncle Jazon, if he thought at all,
probably considered nothing but present escape, though he prayed
audibly to the Blessed Virgin, even while he lay helpless upon the
ground, pinned down by the weight of an enormous Indian. He could not
move any part of himself, save his lips, and these mechanically put
forth the wheezing supplication.

Beverley and Kenton, being young and powerful, were not so easily
mastered. For a while, indeed, they appeared to be more than holding
their own. They time and time again scattered the entire crowd by the
violence of their muscular efforts; and after it had finally closed in
upon them in a solid body they swayed and swung it back and forth and
round and round until the writhing, savage mass looked as if caught in
the vort