the wilderness, but I never, before or since, heard sitch a
yellin' as the painted critters set up in the woods all around when they
came at us, sendin' a shower o' arrows in advance to tickle us up; but
they was bad shots, for only one took effect, an' that shaft just grazed
the point o' young Bounce's nose as neat as if it was only meant to make
him sneeze. It made him jump, I tell 'ee, higher than I ever seed him
jump before. Of course fightin' was out o' the question.

"Ten trappers under cover might hold their own easy enough agin a
hundred Redskins, but not in the open. We all knew that, an' had no
need to call a council o' war. Every man let his pack fall, an' away we
went for the Outlook, followed by the yellin' critters closer to our
heels than we quite liked. But they couldn't shoot runnin', so we got
to the gap. The plank was there all right. Over we went, faced about,
and while one o' us hauled it over, the rest gave the savages a volley
that sent them back faster than they came.

"`Miffy's lost!' obsarved one o' my comrades as we got in among the
bushes here an' prepared to fight it out.

"`No great loss,' remarked another.

"`No fear o' Miffy,' said Bounce, feelin' his nose tenderly, `he's a bad
shillin', and bad shillin's always turn up, they say.'

"Bounce had barely finished when we heard another most awesome burst o'
yellin' in the woods, followed by a deep roar.

"`That's Miffy,' says I, feelin' quite excited, for I'd got to have a
sneakin' sort o' pity for the miserable critter. `It's a twin roar to
the one he gave that day when he mistook Hairy Sam for a grizzly b'ar,
an' went up a spruce-fir like a squirrel.' Sure enough, in another
moment Miffy burst out o' the woods an' came tearin' across the open
space straight for the gap, followed by a dozen or more savages.

"`Run, Bounce--the plank!' says I, jumpin' up. `We'll drive the
reptiles back!'

"While I was speakin' we were all runnin' full split to meet the poor
critter, Bounce far in advance. Whether it was over-haste, or the pain
of his nose, I never could make out, but somehow, in tryin' to shove the
plank over, Bounce let it slip. Down it went an' split to splinters on
the rock's a hundred feet below! Miffy was close up at the time. His
cheeks was yaller an' his eyes starin' as he came on, but his face
turned green and his eyes took to glarin' when he saw what had happened.
I saw a kind o' hesitation in his look as he cam