way," said Crockett dryly.

"Then we'll go back an' j'in 'em."

"To hold a caucus, so to speak."

"I don't know what a cow-cuss is."

"It's Congressional for a conference. Don't mind these parliamentary
expressions of mine, Mr. Panther. They give me pleasure an' they hurt
nobody."

They reached the Tennesseans without interruption, and the Panther
quickly laid his plan before them. They would advance within a quarter
of a mile of the cabin, tie their horses in the thickest of the brush,
leave four men to guard them, then the rest would go forward to help the
besieged.

Crockett's eyes twinkled when the Panther announced the campaign in a
few words.

"Very good; very good," he said. "A steering committee could not have
done better. That also is parliamentary, but I think you understand it."

They heard detached shots again and then a long yell.

"They're Comanches," said the Panther. "I know their cry, an' I guess
there's a lot of them."

Ned hoped that the shout did not mean the achieving of some triumph.
They reached presently a dense growth of brush, and there the horses
were tied. Four reluctant Tennesseans remained with them and the rest
crept forward. They did not hear any shot after they left the horses
until they were within three hundred yards of the house. Then an
apparition caused all to stop simultaneously.

A streak of flame shot above the trees, curved and fell. It was followed
by another and another. Ned was puzzled, but the Panther laughed low.

"This can't be fireworks on election night," said Davy Crockett. "It
seems hardly the place for such a display."

"They're fireworks, all right," said the Panther, "but it's not election
night. You're correct about that part of it. Look, there goes the fourth
an' the fifth."

Two more streaks of flame curved and fell, and Ned and Crockett were
still puzzled.

"Them's burnin' arrers," said the Panther. "It's an old trick of the
Injuns. If they had time enough they'd be sure to set the cabin on fire,
and then from ambush they'd shoot the people as they ran out. But what
we're here for is to stop that little game of theirs. The flight of the
arrers enables us to locate the spot from which they come an' there
we'll find the Comanches."

They crept toward the point from which the lighted arrows were flying,
and peering; from the thicket saw a score or more of Comanches gathered
in the bushes and under the trees. One of the Tennesseans, seeking a
b