Presently one of the regulars saw a form wriggling through the grass. He was on the point of firing when he recognized the old frontiersman. Barringford came in a good deal out of breath.
“We’ve got to move, an’ move quick, too!” he announced. “There’s a crowd o’ thirty Injuns over thar,”—he pointed with his hand. “They are goin’ to attack us as soon as the sun goes down.”
“But where shall we move to?” questioned Rodney.
“I war thinkin’ o’ thet cave ye spoke about, Hempser,” went on Barringford, turning to one of the other old hunters. “You said it war nigh here.”
“It’s half a mile beyond the cliff,” was Hempser’s answer. “I don’t know the way very good, but I think I can find it.”
“Then thet is where we’ll go, an’ to onct,” decided Sam Barringford.
Not a minute was lost in breaking camp, and in a close body the pack-train set out, past the cliff and then through a valley of heavy grass and bushes. The men carried their guns ready for use, and screened Mrs. Dobson and the children as much as possible.
“Oh dear! I’d rather be dead than be so worried,” sighed the woman. “I am that nervous I am ready to drop!”
At the end of the short valley was another rise of rocks, among which was located the cave. They had just gained the first of the rocks when a hideous war-whoop sounded out on the afternoon air.
“They have discovered us!” cried Rodney, and he was right. At the far end of the valley appeared fully a score of Indians, a few on horseback and the others on foot.
The Indians had been surprised, thinking the whites were still on the trail. But they soon recovered, and came riding and running towards our friends, yelling at the top of their lungs and flourishing their tomahawks. A moment later they sent a volley of arrows and several rifle shots, for some carried one kind of weapon and some the other.
“Are you hurt?” asked Barringford of Rodney, as he saw the young soldier stagger.
“No, an arrow hit me in the coat-sleeve, that’s all—it didn’t get through my shirt though.”
One of the regulars had been struck by a bullet in the shoulder, and his friends had to help him along. Then the Indians sent forth more arrows, one of which tore through little Nell’s dress.
“Oh!” cried the little miss, in great terror.