HUNTERS AND TRAPPERS OF THE FAR WEST. 89 



and the luminary herself just peered over the mountain, 

 illuminating its pine-clad summit, and throwing her beams on 

 the opposite peak, when Killbuck touched his companion's arm, 

 and whispered, "Wait for full light boy." 



At this moment, however, unseen by the trapper, the old 

 grizzled mule had gradually approached, as she fed along 

 the plateau ; and, when within a few paces of their retreat, 

 a gleam of moonshine revealed to the animal the erect forms 

 of the two whites. Suddenly she stood still and pricked her 

 ears, and stretching out her neck and nose, snuffed the air. 

 Well she knew her old master. 



Kilbuck, with eyes fixed upon the Indians, who was on the 

 point of giving the signal of attack to his comrade, when the 

 shrill hinny of his mule reverberated through the gorge. The 

 Indians jumped to their feet and seized their arms, when Kill- 

 buck, with a loud shout of " At 'em, boy ; give the niggurs 

 h !" rushed from his concealment, and with La Bonte by 

 his side, yelling a fierce war-whoop, sprung upon the startled 

 savages. 



Panic-struck with the suddenness of the attack, the Indians 

 scarcely knew where to run. and for a moment stood huddled 

 together like sheep. Down dropped Killbuck on his knee, and 

 stretching out his wiping-stick, planted it on the ground at the 

 extreme length of his arm. As methodically and as coolly as 

 if to aim at a deer, he raised his rifle to this rest and pulled 

 the trigger. At the report an Indian fell forward on his face, 

 at the same moment that La Bonte, with equal certainty of 

 aim and like effect discharged his own rifle. 



The three surviving Indians, seeing that their assailants 

 were but two, and knowing that their guns were empty, came 

 on with loud yells. With the left hand grasping a bunch of 

 arrows, and holding the bow already bent, and arrow fixed, 

 they steadily advanced, bending low to the ground to get 

 their objects between them and the light, and thus render 

 their aim more certain. The trappers, however, did not care 



8* 



