h!" cried Nathan, with a voice
more like the blast of a bugle than the tone of a frighted man of peace;
and casting Edith from his arms, he set the example of attack or
flight--Roland scarcely knew which,--by leaping against the breast of the
daring intruder. Both fell together across the threshold, and Roland
obeying the call with desperate and frantic ardour, stumbled over their
bodies, pitching headlong into the passage, whereby he escaped the
certain death that otherwise awaited him, three several rifle-shots
having been that instant poured upon him from a distance of scarce as
many feet.

"Strike, if thee conscience permits thee!" he heard the voice of
Nathan cry in his ears, and the next moment, a shot from the interior
of the hovel, heralded by a quavering cry from the faithful
Emperor,--"Lorra-gor! nebber harm an Injun in my life!" struck the
hatchet from the shattered hand of a foeman, who had taken advantage of
his downfall to aim a fatal blow at him while rising. A yell of pain came
from the maimed and baffled warrior, who, springing over the blackened
ruins before the door, escaped the stroke of the clubbed rifle which the
soldier aimed at him in return, the piece having been discharged by the
fall. The cry of the flying assailant was echoed by what seemed in
Roland's ears the yells of fifty supporters, two of whom he saw within
six feet of him, brandishing their hatchets, as if in the act of flinging
them at his almost defenceless person. It was at this moment that he
experienced aid from a quarter whence it was almost least expected; a
rifle was discharged from the ravine, and as one of the fierce foes
suddenly dropped, mortally wounded upon the floor, he heard the voice of
Pardon, the Yankee, crying in tones of desperation, "When there is no
dodging 'em, then I'm the man for 'em, or it a'n't no matter!"

"Bravo! bravely done, Emperor and Dodge both!" cried Roland, to whom this
happy and quite unexpected display of courage from his followers, and its
successful results, imparted a degree of assurance and hope not before
felt; for, indeed, up to this moment, his feeling had been the mere
frenzy of despair--"Courage, and rush on!" And with these words, he did
not hesitate to dash against the remaining foe, striking up the uplifted
hatchet with his rifle, and endeavouring with the same effort to dash his
weapon into the warrior's face. But the former part only of the manoeuvre
succeeded; the tomahawk was ind