, had saved them from going so completely into the trap that
its last bar could close down.

A mighty wail arose from the Mohawks when they saw their venerated
leader fall, but the wail merged into a fierce cry for vengeance, to
which the ambushed French and Indians replied with shouts of exultation
and increased their fire, every tree and bush and rock and log hiding a
marksman.

"Give back!" shouted Tayoga to those around him. "Give back for your
lives!"

The Mohawks and the frontiersmen alike saw they must slip from the trap,
which they had half entered, if they were not to perish as Braddock's
army had perished, and like good foresters they fell back without
hesitation, pouring volley after volley into the woods and thickets
where French and Indians still lay hidden. Yet the mortality among them
was terrible. Colonel Williams noted a rising ground on their right, and
led his men up the slope, but as they reached the summit he fell dead,
shot through the brain. A new and terrible fire was poured upon his
troops there from the bordering forest, and, unable to withstand it,
they broke and began to retreat in confusion.

The young Philadelphians, with Robert, Tayoga and Grosvenor, rushed to
their aid, and they were followed swiftly by the other regiment under
Whiting. Yet it seemed that they would be cut to pieces when Robert
suddenly heard a tremendous war cry from a voice he thought he knew, and
looking back, he saw Daganoweda, the Mohawk, rushing into the battle.

The young chieftain looked a very god of war, his eyes glittering, the
feathers in his headdress waving defiantly, the blade of his tomahawk
flashing with light, when he swung it aloft. Now and then his lips
opened as he let loose the tremendous war cry of the Ganeagaono. Close
behind him crowded the warriors who had survived the combat with St.
Luc, and there were Black Rifle, Willet, Rogers and the rangers, too,
come just in time, with their stout hearts and strong arms to help stay
the battle.

Robert himself uttered a shout of joy and the dark eyes of Tayoga
glowed. But from the Mohawks of Hendrik came a mighty, thrilling cry
when they saw the rush of their brethren under Daganoweda to their aid.
Hendrik had fallen, and he had been a great and a wise sachem who would
be missed long by his nation, but Daganoweda was left, a young chief, a
very thunderbolt in battle, and the fire from his own ardent spirit was
communicated to theirs. Willet, Black