murdered seventy white men, women, and children, and thus did the
Captain of the Pilgrim forces teach the red men a lesson that lasted in
vivid force until the men of that generation had given way to those of
poor weak Sachem Philip's day.

That night one of the three colonists who had gone to live among the
Indians returned to the village bringing news that in the evening a
runner had arrived at the place where he was, and had delivered a "short
and sad" message to his hosts, probably the news of Pecksuot's and
Wituwamat's death. The Indians had begun at once to collect and arm, and
he foreboding evil had slunk away after vainly trying to persuade his
comrades to do the same.

"They will be slain out of revenge," declared Hobomok in his own tongue,
and the event proved him a true prophet.

In the early gray of morning the watch reported a file of Indians
emerging from the forest, and Standish with four of his own men, and two
settlers who implored permission to join him, went to meet them. A bushy
hillock lay midway between the two parties, and the Indians were making
for its shelter, when the Pilgrims breaking into a double run
forestalled them, and reached the summit where, as Standish declared, he
was ready to welcome the whole Neponset tribe.

The Indians at once fell behind each man his tree, and a flight of
arrows aimed chiefly at Standish and Hobomok ensued.

"Let no man shoot until he hath a fair mark," ordered the Captain.
"'T is useless to waste ammunition upon tree-trunks."

"Both their pnieses are dead, and Obtakiest himself is none!" suddenly
declared Hobomok. "I alone can drive them!" and throwing off his coat,
leaving his chest with its gleaming "totem" bare, he extended wide his
arms and rushed down the hill shouting at the top of his voice,--

"Hobomok the pniese! Hobomok the devil! Hobomok is awake! Hobomok has
come!"

"The fool will be shot! Hath he gone mad!" shouted Billington, but
Hopkins grasped his arm.

"Let be, let be! He knows what he is about. Himself told me that his
name Hobomok answereth to our word Devil, and that while every pniese
through fasting and self-torture gains much power over demons and is
greatly feared by all who are not pnieses, he having taken the foul
fiend's name, had gained double the power of the rest, and could when
put to it summon Sathanas and all his brood to aid him. Those others
know it, and--lo, you now, see them scatter, see them fly!" and with a
l