se.

I waited, then spoke again; and, at the sound of my voice, he wheeled
on me with a snarl.

"You damned spy!" he stammered; "I'll stop your dirty business now, by
God!" and, leaping back, whipped a ranger's whistle to his lips, waking
the forest echoes with the piercing summons ere I had bounded on him
and had borne him down, shoulder-deep in moss and marsh-grass.

Struggling, half smothered by the deep and matted tangle, I heard the
startled shout of the Oneida; the distant crashing of many men running
in the underbrush; and, throttling him with both hands, I dragged him
to his feet and started toward the Oneida, pulling my prisoner with me.
But a yell from the wood's edge seemed to put fresh life into him; he
bit and scratched and struggled, and I labored in vain to choke him or
stun him. Then, in very desperation and fear of life, I strove to kill
him with my hands, but could not, and at last hurled him from me to
shoot him; but he had kicked the flint from my rifle, and, as I leveled
it, he dropped on the edge of the Dead Water and wriggled over, splash!
into the dark current, diving as my hatchet hit the waves. Then I heard
the loud explosion of rifles behind me; bullets tore through the scrub;
I turned to run for my life. And it was time.

"Ugh!" grunted the Oneida, as I came bursting headlong through the
willows. "Follow now!" He seized the horse by the bridle; the girl
mounted; then, leading the horse at a trot, we started due south
through the tossing bushes.

A man in a green uniform, knee-deep in the grass, fired at us from the
Stacking-Ridge as we passed, and the Oneida shook his rifle at him with
a shout of insult. For now at last the whole game was up, and my
mission as a spy in this country ended once and forever. No chance now
to hobnob with Johnson's Greens, no chance to approach St. Leger and
Haldimand. Butler was here, and there could be no more concealment.

Such an exhilaration of savage happiness seized me that I lost my head,
and begged the Oneida to stop and let me set a flint and give the Royal
Greens a shot or two; but the wily chief refused; and he was wise, for
I should have known that the Sacandaga must already be a swarming nest
of Johnson's foresters and painted savages.

The heat was terrific in the willows; sweat poured from the half-naked
Oneida as he ran, and my hunting-shirt hung soaked, flapping across my
thighs.

We had doubled on them now, going almost due west. Far ac