the very savages to pause a moment and look at each other in surprise.
They did not pause long, however!

"Now, Buttercup," thundered Roaring Bull, "give it 'em--hot!"

At the word the girl calmly laid aside her weapon, lifted the big iron
pot with familiar and businesslike facility, and emptied it over the
window.

The result is more easily imagined than described. A yell that must
have been heard miles off was the prelude to a stampede of the most
lively nature. It was intensified, if possible, by the further action
of the negress, who, seizing the blunderbuss, pointed it at the flying
crowd, and, shutting both eyes, fired! Not a buckshot took effect on
the savages, for Buttercup, if we may say so, aimed too low, but the
effect was more stupendous than if the aim had been good, for the heavy
charge drove up an indescribable amount of peppery dust and small stones
into the rear of the flying foe, causing another yell which was not an
echo but a magnified reverberation of the first. Thus Buttercup had the
satisfaction of utterly routing her foes without killing a single man!

Daylight had fairly set in by that time, and the few savages who had not
succeeded in vaulting the stockade had concealed themselves behind the
various outhouses.

The proprietor of the ranch began now to have some hope of keeping the
Indians at bay until the troops should succour him. He even left his
post and called his friends to a council of war, when a wild cheer was
heard in the woods. It was followed by the sound of firing. No sooner
was this heard than the savages concealed outside of the breastwork rose
as one man and ran for the woods.

"It's the troops!" exclaimed Dick hopefully.

"Troopers never cheer like that," returned Jackson with an anxious look.
"It's more like my poor cow-boys, and, if so, they will have no chance
wi' such a crowd o' Reds. We must ride to help them, an' you'll have to
ride with us, Mary. We daren't leave you behind, lass, wi' them
varmints skulkin' around."

"I'm ready, father," said Mary with a decided look, though it was
evident, from the pallor of her cheek, that she was ill at ease.

"Now, look here, Dick," said Jackson, quickly, "you will go down and
open the front gate. I'll go with 'ee wi' my repeater to keep an eye on
the hidden reptiles, so that if one of them shows so much as the tip of
his ugly nose he'll have cause to remember it. You will go to my
loophole, Crux, an keep your ey