eir strength, made ready for the
final attack.

All this time young Smith, upon the opposite side of the creek, was
engaged in watching the Shawnees as well as he could from his covert.
He now called out to the whites that they were about to advance again,
and that he would pick off one at least as they passed across the open
space referred to. A moment later, the crack of his rifle showed that
he had kept his word and that the crisis of the contest was upon them.

Young Smith had fired just at the moment the foremost Indian came in
view. The other had advanced to a point about half way across the
opening, when five spouts of flame burst from the thick shrubbery upon
the opposite side of the creek; there was the simultaneous report of as
many rifles, and five messengers of death went tearing among the
Shawnees, mangling, killing and scattering them like chaff in the
whirlwind.

"_The Riflemen of the Miami!_" shouted Laughlin, in a delirium of joy,
springing to his feet and swinging his cap over his head. All eyes, in
a transport of pleasure, were turned toward the spot where the thin,
blueish smoke of their rifles was rising, but for a few moments nothing
was seen. At the expiration of that time, the manly form of Lewis
Dernor rose to view, and, with a nod of recognition, he stepped into
the stream and commenced wading across, closely followed by young
Smith, who, up to the moment of the discharge of the rifles, had no
more suspicion the hunters were in the vicinity than had the Shawnees
themselves.

It scarcely need be said that the welcome which the settlers extended
to the hunter was of the most hearty and genuine kind. Through his
instrumentality they felt they all had been saved from massacre at the
hands of the Shawnees.

"But where are your men?" asked several.

"Upon the opposite side. They will cross over shortly."

"And will they accompany us?"

"They will not leave you until you have reached your destination."

"The Indians will not trouble us again?"

"No, I think not; but the boys can go with you as well as not, and I
make this arrangement as a sort of compensation for my failure to keep
my appointment."

"Your absence did excite much wonder, but you came up in the nick of
time, most certainly."

"Sego, unconsciously, was the cause of our delay. He was absent at the
time I reached the Miami. We could have come on without him, of course;
but, as I was pretty sure a large body of Indians were