d Smith, "we are not done with the rascals yet."

At this moment son Jim, who was still on the other side of the creek,
called out that eight Indians had landed, and were stealing up the
river bank to attack the party. His words were heard, and every man
dropped on his face in the wood, and with loaded rifles waited the
assault. They had scarcely done so when the sharp explosion of several
guns broke the stillness, and the two foremost oxen, with a wild bellow
of agony, sunk to the ground and died. The brutes behind them imitated
their motion, although operated upon solely by their own sense of
weariness. They thus unconsciously did the wisest thing possible under
the circumstances, as the shots that were afterward fired passed
harmlessly over them.

For the space of twenty minutes after this incident, a perfect silence
reigned in the wood. These twenty minutes were occupied by the Shawnees
in getting in a position to pick off the settlers. The latter could see
them dodging from tree to tree, and coming closer and closer every
moment. Emboldened by their immunity thus far, they became more
incautious, until several exposed themselves so plainly that the elder
Smith and one of the settlers fired precisely at the same moment, each
one shooting a savage dead. A whole volley was returned, several
bullets cutting the shrubbery and bushes over the heads of the
settlers, while others passed through the wagon-covering, evidently
fired with intent against the women and children in it. These shots
accomplished nothing, as the latter kept their heads below the top of
the heavy oaken sides, which were proof against the best rifle ever
discharged.

The two shots of the settlers for a time created a sort of panic with
the Indians. They retreated far more rapidly than they had come up, and
in a few moments were invisible. The whites were too well versed in
Indian ways and strategy to take this as a genuine retreat, knowing
that in a few moments they would return more furious than ever.

There was an advantage in favor of the settlers of which, up to this
moment, they had not been aware. Some fifty yards below them was an
open space over forty feet in width, across which the Shawnees hurried
pell mell into the cover beyond. Here they were reinforced by some
half-dozen Indians of their own tribe, who had been in the vicinity and
had been attracted by the sound of firing. The assailants now numbered
about a dozen, and confident in th