action. Reloading, and circling warily to
avoid being taken by surprise by any companion, I reached the beech. My
first shot had caught him through the base of the neck, killing
instantly.

He wore a necklace of bear's claws and was hideously painted. He had the
snake totem on his chest and was nude except for his breech-clout and
moccasins. Fastened to his clout were four awful exhibits of his
predaceous success--four scalps. One was gray, another streaked with gray,
and two--oh, the pity of it--were soft and long.

I removed them and placed them in the roll of buckskin that I carried for
moccasin-patches. And my heart being hardened, I scalped the murderer with
never a qualm. No warning was longer needed at the Grisdol cabin. The
Indians had struck.

Furtively scanning the grove, I stole to the trace where my horse stood
fetlock-deep in the brook. The dead warrior had known of my coming, or of
some one's coming, and had had time to masquerade as a bear. He had
thought to catch his victim off his guard.

The four scalps proved the raiders were out in numbers, for a small party
would not venture so far east. But the dead warrior's attempt to ambush me
in a bearskin also proved he was working alone for the time being. Yet
gunshots carry far, and I might expect the Shawnees to be swarming into
the hollow at any moment.

Mounting my horse, I turned north, left of the trace, and picked a course
where no trail ran, and from which I could occasionally catch a glimpse of
the path some fifty feet below. I discovered no signs of the enemy, and
there was no way of telling whether they were ahead or behind me. That
they must have heard the roar of the smoothbore and the whip-like crack of
my Deckhard was not to be doubted. Nor would they fail to guess the truth,
inasmuch as the rifle had spoken last.

It became very difficult to keep along the side of the slope and I
dismounted and led the horse. The prolonged howl of a wolf sounded behind.
My horse was greatly afraid of wolves, yet he did not draw back and
display nervousness. I increased my pace, then halted and half-raised my
rifle as there came a shuffling of feet above me, accompanied by a tiny
avalanche of forest mold and rotten chestnuts. I rested the rifle over the
saddle and endeavored to peer through the tangle of beech and inferior
growth which masked the flank of the slope.

The sliding, shuffling sound continued with no attempt at concealment that
I could disc