SEE0-T1ME AH® HABflST. 
11 
i 
I heerd a shot ’way off up the crick. Afore 
I could think, it was followed by another, 
and then cum a volley of shots and yells 
thet fairly raised my hair an’ made my 
heart a’most stop heatin’. But a wild fear 
fur Ole tuck a holt uv me, an' droppin’ 
everything but my rifle, 1 rushed off down 
the river toward the mouth of the crick. 
I hed hardly run a half mile, when Ole 
burst out o' the bushes thet lined the left 
bank, an’ dropped down ten feet onto the 
ice an’ snow below. 
“Up the river fur yerlife, Si,” he panted; 
“the red skins is arter us!” 
One squint over my shoulder ez we 
plunged on up river, showed thet Ole’s 
words was only too true. A duzzen or 
more uv the painted devils was roundin’ 
the bend jest below us. 
The shots and yells thet follered our 
discovery, added a leetle to our speed, I 
gess, fur we wasn't long in gettin’ ’round 
the next bend, I kin tell ye. 
We didn’t stop to consider, an’ not a 
word passed atween us ez we plowed along 
in the soft snow. We knowed it was no 
use to show fight there, fur they was six 
to one. 
Our only way was to keep to the bed uv 
the river for the present, and do our pur- 
tiest in the way of runnin’. The banks 
was gittin’ steeper an’ higher, an’ we 
couldn’t a left the river ef we’d a tried to. 
We was jest aboutholdin’ our own with 
’em, but we was pantin’ an’ bio win’ with 
the work, I can tell ye. 
I was beginning to think thet I would 
sooner stop an’ risk a fight, than to keep 
this up much longer, when Ole sez: 
“To the right, Si, an’ I see a deep cut 
runnin’ off up into the hills.” It must ha’ 
been a water course once, but now it was 
a deep dry cut. 
This seemed like a providence to us, fur 
there was some hope thet we might double 
around an’ make back toward the shanty. 
I was jest agoin’ to say as much to Ole, 
when we turned a sharp bend an’ come 
plump up to a wall uv rock, an’ then there 
we was, caught like rats in a trap, ez it 
seemed to us at first. 
Twenty feet of perpendic'lar rock sur¬ 
rounded us on all sides exceptin’ the en¬ 
trance way, an’ we could tell by the yells 
below, thet the Injuns hed already reached 
the cut. If w r e could only find some hole or 
other to crawl into ! We kicked away the 
hangin’ snow thet was banked up around 
the rocky sides, when all at once my feet 
slipped out from under me, an’ I found 
myself a slidin’ down into a little shelvin' 
hole, thet hed bin hid by the snow until I 
tumbled into it. 
I yelled to Ole to foiler me, an’ the next 
thing I knowed there was ’bout half a ton. 
uv snow, an’ Ole on top uv me. 
We could laff at a hull tribe o’ Injuns^ 
here, an’ in a twinklin’ we hed placed our¬ 
selves ready fur the attack. We meant to 
show ’em now thet we could fight ez well 
ez run. 
Trustin’ to their numbers, they flounder¬ 
ed up the cut without any caution, an 7 
just ez they swept ’round the sharp bend, 
an’ afore they could gather in the situation, 
we sent in our fire. 
Of all the screamin’ an’ tumblin’ I ever 
see, them there braves did beat it. In their 
noble haste to git back aliind thet turn 
agin, they trampled each other into the 
snow like so many sheep, an’ the air seemed 
to be full o’ snow-shoes, war-paint an’ red 
skins. 
Ez hard a place ez we was in, we 
couldn’t help laffin’ at the sudden turn in 
affairs. 
One of ‘em was quiet however, an’ he 
lay there with his snow-shoes a pintin’ up> 
to the happy huntin’ grounds. Another 
crawled back leavin’ a trail uv blood about 
him on the snow. 
Our rifles was soon ready fur work 
agm, but there was nothin’ more for ’em to 
do at present. 
“Thet’s the last shot we’ll get at’em from 
this place,” sez Ole; “they’ll be purty care¬ 
ful how they poke their noses ‘round thet 
’ere pint arter this.” 
“We’re all right fur the present,” sez 1^ 
“but how are we^agoin’ to git out o’ this,. 
Ole?” 
“We might jest ez well set down an' rest 
until dark,” sez Ole. An’ then we looked 
into each other’s faces kind o’ gloomy like. 
We knew enuff about the red-skins to 
know thet thev would starve or freeze us* 
V 
