n directing his piece
against the other. Both of them presented the fairest marks, as they sat
wholly unconscious of their danger, enjoying in imagination the tortures
yet to be inflicted on the prisoner. But a noise in the gully,--the
falling of a stone loosened by the soldier's foot, or a louder than usual
plash of water,--suddenly roused them from their dreams; they started up,
and turned their eyes towards the hill.--"Now, friend!" whispered
Nathan;--"if thee misses, thee loses thee maiden and thee life into the
bargain.--Is thee ready?"

"Ready," was the reply.

"Right, then, through the dog's brain,--fire!"

The crash of the pieces, and the fall of the two victims, both marked by
a fatal aim, and both pierced through the brain, were the first
announcement of peril to their companions; who, springing up, with yells
of fear and astonishment, and snatching at their arms, looked wildly
around them for the unseen foe. The prisoner, also, astounded out of his
despair, raised his head from the grass, and glared around. The wreaths
of smoke curling over the bushes on the hill-side, betrayed the lurking
place of the assailants; and savages and prisoner turning together, they
all beheld at once the spectacle of two human heads,--or, to speak more
correctly, two human caps, for the heads were far below them,--rising in
the smoke, and peering over the bushes, as if to mark the result of the
volley. Loud, furious, and exulting were the screams of the Indians, as
with the speed of thought, seduced by a stratagem often practised among
the wild heroes of the border, they raised and discharged their pieces
against the imaginary foes so incautiously exposed to their vengeance.
The caps fell, and with them the rifles that had been employed to raise
them; and the voice of Nathan thundered through the glen, as he grasped
his tomahawk and sprang from the ditch,--"Now, friend! up with thee axe,
and do thee duty!"

With these words, the two assailants at once leaped into view, and with a
bold hurrah, and bolder hearts, rushed towards the fire, where lay the
undischarged rifles of their first victims. The savages yelled also in
reply, and two of them bounded forward to dispute the prize. The third,
staggered into momentary inaction by the suddenness and amazement of the
attack, rushed forward but a step; but a whoop of exultation was on his
lips, as he raised the rifle which _he_ had not yet discharged, full
against the breast of Tige