“Come on, Bob,” exclaimed Joseph, as he swiftly started forward.
He had taken only a few steps, however, when he felt himself gripped strongly by his arm and held back.
“No be a fool,” muttered Deerfoot. “Black Hawk have fifty braves. You be killed unless stay here.”
“But my family, my mother and sisters,” pleaded Joseph. “They will be killed unless I go to help them.”
“They be killed anyway,” said Deerfoot stoically. “No use you be killed, too.”
With one hand he held Joseph in a grip of iron, while with the other he maintained a firm hold on Robert. Both boys struggled to free themselves but to no avail. Their Indian ally held them fast, while all the time in a low voice he talked to his young friends.
“Black Hawk come with big band,” he explained. “Me run ten mile to warn Halls. Black Hawk say he kill your father. He say your father bad to Indian. No use you be killed, too. Soon they look for you. You better run. Deerfoot take you away safe.”
“No! No!” protested Joseph and Robert in one breath.
“Let go of me, Deerfoot!” exclaimed Joseph. “Do you think I can leave, while my family are being murdered? Let me go, I say!”
“Deerfoot no let go,” replied the Indian calmly.
The air now was resounding with the cries of the bloodthirsty redmen. If the wild shouts provided a just basis by which to estimate the numbers in the attacking party then it must be as large as Deerfoot had declared it to be, the boys concluded. In their hearts both boys were already convinced that whatever they might do would be of no avail. At the same time it is not easy to watch an attack upon one’s family, and both boys would rather have lost their own lives than to sit quietly by without making an effort to aid.
Every time the war whoop sounded a shudder ran through them and they begged Deerfoot for a chance to try to protect or avenge their father, mother and sisters. Both boys knew well that when an Indian makes war he spares no one from the head of the family down to the baby in the cradle. They already were convinced that soon they would be the only survivors in what had but recently been a family of six.
Suddenly Robert wrenched himself free from Deerfoot’s hold and sprang to his feet. Night was rapidly coming on and objects at a distance were hard to distinguish. Through the gathering dusk he could see his home in the distance. It had been set on fire and around and around it the red marauders were dancing, sending forth their fiendish shouts of victory. Undoubtedly everyone in the house was now dead and soon only the charred remains of what had once been their home would remain.