the Riflemen, but the latter had so much the advantage of them,
that to prolong the contest would only be to insure their own
annihilation. Three of their number were already slain, and the
remaining four, from their respective positions, had not the shadow of
a chance to pick off any of the whites. What might naturally be
expected under the circumstances occurred. The savages commenced a
retreat, conducting it with such caution that the whites could not gain
another shot. The last seen of them was a shadowy glimpse in a distant
part of the wood, as the four fled, thereby doing only what the
Riflemen of the Miami had before compelled many a body of Indians to
do.

A few minutes later, Lewis rose up and said:

"This way, gal; there's none of the imps left."

The girl, timidly raising her head, glanced about her, and then, Lewis'
invitation being repeated, she arose and walked toward him, looking
furtively backward as though still fearful of her late captors.

"Bless your dear soul," said Lewis, warmly welcoming her, "you've had a
skeery time with them Shawnees, but you're safe for the present. You
may set that down as a question that needn't be argued."

"Oh! how can I thank you for rescuing me! I can never, never repay
you," said she, with streaming eyes.

"Who the deuce wants you to pay us?" asked Tom, gruffly.

"Come, come, Tom, see whether you can't be civil once, even if you've
got to be sick for it. Don't mind him, little gal; he loves you all the
more for what he said."

"I know he does, or he would never have risked his life to save a
stranger as he has just done."

Tom, from some cause or other, was obliged to gouge his eye several
times with his crooked finger. One might have suspected that they were
more moist than usual, had he not looked particularly savage at that
moment. Dick, who, by the merest accident, glanced in his face was
nearly startled off his feet by the irascible fellow shouting:

"What you looking at? Say! Can't a chap rub his eyes without your
gaping at him that way?"

Dick meekly removed his gaze, while Tom looked ferocious enough to
annihilate the whole party.

The girl, just rescued from the Shawnees, was a comely maiden. Though
attired in the homespun garb of the backwoods, she would have attracted
attention in any society. If not beautiful, she certainly was handsome,
being possessed of a countenance rich with expression, and a form of
perfect grace. Blue eyes, golden hair