ition, his head
about four feet above ground, while his eyes were fixed on the tree from
behind which had sped the well nigh fatal missile.

"He will soon show himself," must have been the thought of the Indian,
"the bullet can travel faster than the arrow."

At that moment his companion, who was still clasping his wounded arm,
uttered a warning cry. He had discovered the Shawanoe behind another
tree, aiming a second arrow at the breast of the leader.

With incredible dexterity, Deerfoot had run to a trunk fully twenty
yards from the one which first sheltered him. He crouched so low and
passed so swiftly that he reached the shelter before there was a
possibility of discovery. It was accident which led the second warrior
to detect the long bow, bending almost like a horseshoe, with the arrow
aimed at the other.

The latter could not grasp in an instant the full nature of the peril
which impended, though, as a matter of course, he knew it must be at the
hands of the Shawanoe. He cast one glance around him, and again dropped
on his face, but this time the arrow was quicker than he.

_Zip_ came the missile straight for the brawny chest which never could
have dodged from its path in time to escape; but, as if fate had
determined to interfere, the pointed flint impinged against a tiny
branch protruding from the tree nearest the Pawnee, clipping off enough
of the tender bark to leave a gleaming white spot, and glanced
harmlessly beyond.

Deerfoot was astonished beyond measure. He had discharged two arrows at
the foremost foe, and had failed to harm a hair of him. Such a double
failure had never before taken place in his history.

But the cause was self-manifest. The Indian dodged the first, and the
twig turned the second aside. All this was natural enough, but the fact
which impressed the young Shawanoe was that it would have taken place in
neither case had he used a rifle. Was it a wise thing, therefore, when
months before, he had flung aside his gun and taken up his bow again?

Deerfoot had asked himself the same question more than once since that
time, and the doubt had deepened until he could no longer believe he was
wise in clinging to his bow and arrow, great as was his skill in their
use.

But a third arrow was quickly drawn, and stepping from behind the tree,
so that he stood in full sight, he swung his hand aloft with a defiant
shout, and coolly walked away, as though the warriors were too
insignificant to