LIFE IN THE FAR WEST 89 



fire, treating with cool indifference the balls which 

 began to rattle about them ; but as the Indians, 

 emboldened by this apparent inaction, rushed for a 

 closer position, and exposed their bodies within a long 

 range, half-a-dozen rifles rang from the assailed, and 

 two Indians fell dead, one or two more being wounded. 

 As yet, not one of the whites had been touched, but 

 several of the animals had received wounds from the 

 enemy's fire of balls and arrows. Indeed, the Indians 

 remained at too great a distance to render the volleys 

 from their crazy fusees anything like effectual, and had 

 to raise their pieces considerably to make their bullets 

 reach as far as the camp. After three of their band 

 had been killed outright, and many more wounded, 

 their fire began to slacken, and they drew off to a 

 greater distance, evidently resolved to beat a retreat. 

 Retiring to the bluff, they discharged their pieces in a 

 last volley, mounted their horses and galloped off, 

 carrying their wounded with them. This last volley, 

 however, although intended as a mere bravado, unfor- 

 tunately proved fatal to one of the whites. Gonneville, 

 at the moment, was standing on a pack, to get an unin- 

 terrupted sight for a last shot, when one of the random 

 bullets struck him in the breast. La Bonte caught 

 him in his arms as he was about to fall, and laying the 

 wounded trapper gently on the ground, stripped him of 

 his buckskin hunting-frock, to examine the wound. 

 A glance was sufficient to convince his companions 

 that the blow was mortal. The ball had passed 

 through the lungs ; and in a few moments the throat of 



