falling. One here, one there, then three,
then two more. Their line was breaking up.

_God, the men are shooting good!_

He heard voices behind him and looked around.

At the same moment Levi Pope said, "Well, here be a sight to welcome."

Ten feet or so behind him a line of men in coonskin caps and gray shirts
were methodically firing over his head. He'd been so lost in panic and
despair he hadn't heard them coming.

He looked back at the Indians. Brown bodies lay tumbled on the ground,
some only a few feet from his barricade. Those on their feet were
backing up. They melted into the tattered forest.

For a moment Raoul could not move. He lay clutching his rifle with a
grip so hard it hurt his hands, panting heavily.

"It's safe now," Levi Pope said quietly, standing up.

Raoul pushed himself to his feet. His legs were shaking so hard he could
barely stand. He looked around and saw militiamen wading across to the
island from the east bank of the Mississippi.

The men who had been skirmishing in the forest north of the Bad Axe must
have seen the fighting on the island.

Too dazed even to feel happy, Raoul stood taking long breaths and
watched the militiamen come.

He had never in his life needed a drink more than he did now, and he had
forgotten to bring any whiskey with him.

* * * * *

The southern tip of the island was soon crowded with riflemen. Raoul's
three dead were stretched out under blankets, and a burly horse doctor
from the mining country was bandaging the leg of the man with the
tomahawk wound.

"Colonel Henry Dodge," said a tall, whip-lean officer wearing a bicorn
hat. He shook hands with Raoul. "We're almost neighbors. I'm from
Dodgeville settlement, just a little ways north of Galena."

"I'm damned glad you came over, Colonel," said Raoul, feeling like a
fool to have gotten himself trapped. "The Sauk still seem to have a
power of fighting men left."

"Glad you saved a few for us. There were only about two dozen redskins
on the north side of the Bad Axe. They let us see them to draw us away,
I guess, from the main body hiding out here. But the way you were
blasting this island with grape, I was afraid we'd have nothing to do
but bury Indians. Or pieces of them."

Dodge ordered his men to spread out in two lines, one behind the other,
across the width of the island. Raoul positioned his little party in the
center of the foremost line.

"Advance, my brav