ss, Bart, and his companion saw the cruel,
vindictive Indians draw off to a short distance, and joining up into a
close body, they began to fire at their prisoners, treating them as
marks on which to try their skill with the rifle.

The sensation of horror this scene caused was indescribable, and Bart
turned to the Doctor with a look of agony in his eyes.

"Quick!" he said; "let us run out and save them. Oh, what monsters!
They cannot be men."

The Indian who acted as interpreter spoke rapidly to the chief, who
replied, and then the Indian turned to the Doctor and Bart.

"The Beaver-with-Sharp-Teeth says if we want to go out to fight, they
are so many we should all be killed. We must not go."

"He is right, Bart," said the Doctor, hoarsely. "I am willing enough to
fight, but the presence of Maude seems to unman me. I dare not attempt
anything that would risk her life."

"But it is so horrible," cried Bart, peering out of his hiding-place
excitedly, but only to feel the Beaver's hand upon his shoulder, forcing
him down into his old niche.

"Indian dog see," whispered the Beaver, who was rapidly picking up
English words and joining them together.

The sharp report of rifle after rifle was heard now, and after every
shot there was a guttural yell of satisfaction.

"They will kill them, sir," panted Bart, who seemed as if he could
hardly bear to listen to what was going on.

"They must have been dead, poor fellows, when they were hung up there,
Bart. I would that we dared attack the monsters."

"Can you see any sign of Joses, sir?" asked Bart.

"No, my boy; no sign of him, poor fellow! Heaven grant that he be not
seen."

All this time the Indians were rapidly loading and firing at the two
unfortunate men, and, to Bart's horror, he could hear bullet after
bullet strike them, the others hitting the rocky face of the mountain
with a sharp pat, and in the interval of silence that followed those in
hiding could hear some of the bullets afterwards fall.

Every time the savages thought they had hit their white prisoners they
uttered a yell of triumph, and Dr Lascelles knew that this terrible
scene was only the prologue to one of a far more hideous nature, when,
with a fiendish cruelty peculiar to their nature, they would fall upon
their victims with their knives, to flay off their scalps and beards,
leaving the terribly mutilated bodies to the birds and beasts of the
plains.

"I could hit several of them,