ant; "but in your present disabled
state you cannot make use of it."

"At least I will try," returned the Virginian. "If I could but slay
the black-souled Pee-to-tum, I should revenge the treachery of this
day, and perhaps be the means of saving the remnant of our brave
fellows."

"Oh!" gasped Nixon, as he fell suddenly dead upon the body of his
wounded officer. He had been shot through the back and under the
left rib. A fierce veil followed, and Ronayne beheld the hellish
face of the Chippewa, looking more disgusting than ever in the loss
of his left eye, as, with shining blade, he bounded forward to take
the scalp of his victim.

The body of the serjeant lay across his shattered leg, and not only
gave him great anguish, but impeded his action, faint, moreover,
as he was from loss of blood from several subsequent wounds received
during his transit from the spot where he first had fallen. But
the opportunity of avenging his wife, himself, and his slaughtered
companions--the latter all murdered at his instigation--was one
that would never occur again, and all his energies were aroused.
Even while the half--drunken savage was in the act of taking the
scalp of the unfortunate Nixon, Ronayne removed the bayonet from
the musket, and grasping it with all the fierce determination of
hatred, drove the sharp long instrument with such force through
his exposed body, that not only the point protruded several inches
on the opposite side, but the inner edge of the socket itself cut
deeply into the flesh.

Absolutely roaring with pain, the Chippewa left his bloody work
unfinished. The knife fell from his grasp. He sprang to his feet,
and having at once seen by whose hand the blow had been inflicted,
a sudden thought appeared to occur to him. Down again he threw
himself furiously upon the body of the wounded officer, who,
anticipating the act, had by this time armed himself with the knife
that lay with its handle on the ground and the trickling blade
across the down-turned cheek of the serjeant. He sought to encircle
him in his death grip, but, in falling, the handle of the bayonet
had struck the ground, driving the weapon even deeper in, and thus
adding to his torture. But the greater his suffering, the more
desperate became his thirst for revenge. He now managed to throw
his arms round the neck of the Virginian, and said something in
broken English, which, accompanied as his language was by a
fiendish laugh rendering his coun