re
was nothing to indicate even their existence, save the occasional
discharge of a rifle, and the wreath of white smoke curling up from it
into the air. In the battles of regular soldiers, too, men fought in
masses, the chief strength of either party arising from the support which
individuals thus gave to one another, each deriving additional courage
and confidence from the presence of his fellows. Here, on the contrary,
it seemed the first object of each individual, whether American or
Indian, to separate himself as far from his friends as possible, seeking
his own enemies, trusting to his own resources, carrying on the war on
his own foundation,--in short, like the enthusiastic Jerseyman, who,
without belonging to either side, was found at the battle of Monmouth,
peppering away from a fence, at whatever he fancied a foeman--"fighting
on his own _hook_" entirely.

It did not seem to Roland as if a battle fought upon such principles,
could result in any great injury to either party. But he forget, or
rather he was ignorant, that the separation of the combatants, while
effecting the best protection not merely to any one individual, but to
all his comrades, who must have been endangered, if near him; by every
bullet aimed at himself, did not imply either fear or hesitation on his
part, whose object, next to that mentioned, was to avoid the shots of the
many, while seeking out and approaching a single antagonist, whom he was
ever ready singly to encounter.

And thus it happened, that, while Roland deemed the antagonists were
manoeuvring over the hill side, dragging themselves from bush to bush and
rock to rock, to no profitable purpose, they were actually creeping
nigher and nigher to each other every moment, the savages crawling
onwards with the exultation of men who felt their superior strength,
and the Kentuckians advancing with equal alacrity, as if ignorant of, or
bravely indifferent to their inferiority.

It was not a long time, indeed, before the Virginian began to have a
better opinion of the intentions of the respective parties; for, by and
by, the shots, which were at first fired very irregularly and at long
intervals, became more frequent, and, as it seemed, more serious, and an
occasional whoop from an Indian, or a wild shout from a Kentuckian,
showed that the excitement of actual conflict was beginning to be felt on
either side. At the same time, he became sensible, from the direction of
the firing, that b