I'm sure," panted Bart, eagerly. "Pray,
sir, let's fire upon them, and kill some of the wretches. I never felt
like this before, but now it seems as if I must do something to punish
those horrible fiends."

"We could all fire and bring down some of them, Bart," whispered the
Doctor; "but there are fully a hundred there, my boy, and we must be the
losers in the end. They would never leave till they had killed us every
one."

Bart hung his head, and stood there resting upon his rifle, wishing that
his ears could be deaf to the hideous yelling and firing that kept going
on, as the Indians went on with their puerile sport of wreaking their
empty vengeance upon the bodies of the two men whom they had slain.

Twenty times over the Doctor raised his rifle, and as often let it fall,
as he knew what the consequences of his firing would be, while, when
encouraged by this act on the part of his elder, Bart did likewise, it
was for the Beaver to press the barrel down with his brown hand, shaking
his head and smiling gravely the while.

"The Beaver-with-Sharp-Teeth," said the interpreter, "says that the
young chief must wait till the Indian dogs are not so many; then he
shall kill all he will, and take all their scalps."

"Ugh!" shuddered Bart, "as if I wanted to take scalps! I could feel
pleased though if they killed and took the scalps of all these wretches.
No, I don't want that," he muttered, "but it is very horrible, and it
nearly drives me mad to see the cruel monsters shooting at our two poor
men. How they can--"

"Good heavens!" ejaculated the Doctor; "what's that?"

They were all gazing intently at the great post where the firing was
going on, and beyond it at the group of Indians calmly loading and
firing, with a soft film of smoke floating away above their heads, when
all at once, just in their midst, there was a vivid flash of light, and
the air seemed to be full of blocks of stone, which were driven up with
a dense cloud of smoke. Then there was a deafening report, which echoed
back from the side of the mountain; a trembling of the ground, as if
there had been an earthquake; the great pieces of stone fell here and
there; and then, as the smoke spread, a few Indians could be seen
rushing hard towards where their companions were gathered with their
horses, while about the spot where the earth had seemed to vomit forth
flame, rocks and stones were piled-up in hideous confusion, mingled with
quite a score of t