38 LIFEINTHEFAR WEST. 



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. Sud- 

 denly she stood still and pricked her ears, and stretching out her 

 neck and nose, snuffed the air. Well she knew her old master. 



Killbuck, with eyes fixed upon the Indians, 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 Killbuck, with a loud 

 shout of " At 'em, boy ; give the niggurs h — I" 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 to- 

 gether 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 

 about 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 ad- 

 vanced, 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 to wait for them. Drawing their 

 pistols, they charged at once ; and although the bows twanged, and 

 the three arrows struck their mark, on they rushed, discharging 

 their pistols at close quarters. La Bonte threw his empty one at the 

 head of an Indian who was pulling his second arrow to its head at a 



