Every eye was now turned upon
the firing party, who only awaited the signal to execute
their melancholy office, when suddenly, in the direction
of the forest, and upon the extreme height, there burst
the tremendous and deafening yells of upwards of a thousand
savages. For an instant Halloway was forgotten in the
instinctive sense of individual danger, and all gazed
eagerly to ascertain the movements of their enemy.
Presently a man, naked to the waist, his body and face
besmeared with streaks of black and red paint, and his
whole attitude expressing despair and horror, was seen
flying down the height with a rapidity proportioned to
the extreme peril in which he stood. At about fifty paces
in his rear followed a dozen bounding, screaming Indians,
armed with uplifted tomahawks, whose anxiety in pursuit
lent them a speed that even surpassed the efforts of
flight itself. It was evident the object of the pursued
was to reach the detachment, that of the pursuers to
prevent him. The struggle was maintained for a few moments
with equality, but in the end the latter were triumphant,
and at each step the distance that separated them became
less.
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