rised by several Indians,
and just succeeding in making his escape by dodging from bush to bush,
threatening his pursuers with his rifle.

These proved to be but the forerunners of a great war party, for when
the sun rose the hills around seemed black with Sioux. Had they chosen
to dash right in on the camp, running the risk of losing several of
their men in the charge, they could of course have eaten up the three
hunters in a minute; but such a charge is rarely practised by Indians,
who, although they are admirable in defensive warfare, and even in
certain kinds of offensive movements, and although from their skill in
hiding they usually inflict much more loss than they suffer when matched
against white troops, are yet very reluctant to make any movement where
the advantage gained must be offset by considerable loss of life.
The three men thought they were surely doomed, but being veteran
frontiersmen and long inured to every kind of hardship and danger,
they set to work with cool resolution to make as effective a defence
as possible, to beat off their antagonists if they might, and if this
proved impracticable, to sell their lives as dearly as they could.
Having tethered the horses in a slight hollow, the only one which
offered any protection, each man crept out to a point of the triangular
brush patch and lay down to await events.

In a very short while the Indians began closing in on them, taking every
advantage of cover, and then, both from their side of the river and from
the opposite bank, opened a perfect fusillade, wasting their cartridges
with a recklessness which Indians are apt to show when excited. The
hunters could hear the hoarse commands of the chiefs, the war-whoops and
the taunts in broken English which some of the warriors hurled at them.
Very soon all of their horses were killed, and the brush was fairly
riddled by the incessant volleys; but the three men themselves, lying
flat on the ground and well concealed, were not harmed. The more daring
young warriors then began to creep toward the hunters, going stealthily
from one piece of cover to the next; and now the whites in turn opened
fire. They did not shoot recklessly, as did their foes, but coolly and
quietly, endeavoring to make each shot tell. Said Woody: "I only fired
seven times all day; I reckoned on getting meat every time I pulled
trigger." They had an immense advantage over their enemies, in that
whereas they lay still and entirely conceal