is bosom threatened by the vengeful knife, but whose eyes neither
the anguish of suffocation nor the fear of instant death could draw from
the little band, saw them leap from their horses, which were given in
charge of one of the number, who immediately retired beyond the brow of
the hill; while Tom Bruce, a worthy scion of a warlike stock, brandishing
his rifle in one hand, and with the other pointing his nine remaining
followers down the road, cried, in tones so manly that they came to
Roland's ear,--"Now, boys, the women's down _thar_, and the red skins
with them! Show fight, for the honour of Kentuck and the love of woman.
Every man to his bush, and every bullet to its Injun! Bring the brutes
out of their cover!"

This speech, short and homely as it was, was answered by a loud shout
from the nine young men, who began to divide, with the intention of
obeying its simple final instructions; when the Indians, seeing the
design, unwilling to forego the advantage of the first open shot and
perhaps hoping by a weak fire to mask their strength, and decoy the young
Kentuckians into closer quarters, let fly a volley of six or seven guns
from the bushes near to where Roland lay, but without doing much
mischief, or even deceiving the young men, as was expected.

"Thar they go, the brutes!" roared Tom Bruce, adding as he sprang with
his followers among the bushes, "show 'em your noses, and keep a good
squint over your elbows."

"Long-knife big fool,--Piankeshaw eat him up!" cried, the old warrior,
now releasing the soldier's throat from durance, but speaking with tones
of ire and indignation: "shall see how great Injun fighting-man eat up
white man!"

With these words, leaving Roland to endure his bonds, and solace himself
as he might, he crept away into the long grass, and was soon entirely
lost to sight.

The combat that now ensued was one so different in most of its
characteristics from all that Roland had ever before witnessed, that he
watched its progress, notwithstanding the tortures of his bonds and the
fever of his mind, with an interest even apart from that which he
necessarily felt in it, as one whose all of happiness or misery depended
upon the issue. In all conflicts in which he had been engaged, the
adverse ranks were arrayed face to face, looking upon each other as they
fought; but here no man saw his enemy, both parties concealing themselves
so effectually in the grass and among the rocks and shrubs, that the