"Did you kill him, after all, mademoiselle?"
"No, Julie; the wretch is only shamming. I fired yards away from
him. Now let the other brave stand up, or the same fate awaits him,"
the girl cried; and, presenting a picture of abject terror, the
unfortunate redskin, who believed the third one shot at to be dead,
drew himself out of his covert, and, putting his leg upon the horse,
exposed himself to the pistol. Once more the bloodthirsty little
scout fired, and with an agonized yell, the Indian sprawled in the
marsh-mire. His leg he seized just above the knee, as if the bullet
had entered at that point.
"Is he hit?" whispered Julie.
"No, silly petite; he is also making believe. How well the two
rascals act their part. See the one playing dead. Well, we shall wait
long enough to see his imposture exposed. He is sinking fast in the
quagmire. His head is almost under now." She had scarce ceased, when
the redskin gave a convulsive start, resembling a dying spasm, and
got once more safely above the hungry swamp.
"He will continue to have the spasms right along," Julie whispered,
"while we stay here."
"Yes; but for the sake of the two wounded ones--I believe mine is
badly hurt--we shall ride away. But we must keep watch to-night,
Julie. I believe these two men will follow; and if they find us
sleeping, they will brain us." Then, turning to the tangle of
struggling horses and Indians, she said in a stern voice-"Some of you may only pretend that you have been wounded, and
purpose following us. But we shall keep strict watch, and woe unto
any one of you that we catch in pistol range again. We now leave
you." With these words the two sanguinary girls turned their horses,
and briskly rode away.
"What idiots they must have been to follow without fire-arms," Julie
said.
"Had we been armed only with hatchets, how different the case would
have been, enfant naif. You, child, may have considered this shedding
of blood unnecessary, and therefore cruel."
Oh, no; Julie did not think it so. La maitresse knew better than she
did.
"But there was only the choice between taking the method adopted,
and openly meeting the four Indians on terra firma, when probably all
the savages would have been killed; or, in the hurried shooting, we
might have missed the mark, and been cloven or speared."
"Where shall my mistress camp to-night?"
"I know an extensive bluff, and we could penetrate it far enough to
be tolerably safe from the braves."
When the upper rim of the sun burned like a semi-circlet of yellow,
quivering flame, above the far flat prairie, the girls turned their
horses towards a stretch of sombre wood that stood like a vast and
solemn congregation of cloaked men upon the level.