The expression of the face of Deerfoot was terrible. The whole fury of his nature was at white heat. He knew that the two Winnebagos had set out to commit a fearful crime, and it was his work to stay their hands. There was but the single way in which they could be stayed.  
The young Shawanoe kept back a couple of paces from the edge of the ravine, where the shadow of the trees above would hide him from his when they should come in sight. He held his gun and cocked. Though his passion had the glow of the furnace, he was as calm as death.
 
He had not long to wait. By and by a low guttural struck his ear, and his hearing, strung to a marvelously fine point, caught the sound of the soft moccasins on the hard earth. Less than a minute later the form of the Wolf came into the moonlight, as a bather emerges from the side of a lake. Seeing the open ravine at his feet, he stopped, and instantly his companion, Wau-ko-mia-tan, appeared at his side.
 
They quickly saw that the leap was an easy one.
 
"Wau-ko-mia-tan will leap across," said that , "then the Wolf will follow; let us lose no time, for the Shawanoe may be gone."
 
The speaker a single pace and gathered his muscles for the leap. He took one quick step and made a terrific bound upward and outward, straight for the rocky whereon Deerfoot the Shawanoe instantly stepped into the moonlight.
 
The Winnebago was in mid-air, like a leaper, with his legs gathered under him and his arms at his side, when there was a fierce whiz, like the rush of an eagle's wing, something flashed in the moonlight, and the tomahawk, driven by a lightning-like sweep of the Shawanoe's arm, was buried in the chest of the Winnebago as it would have sunk in so much earth.
 
An ear-splitting burst from the throat of the warrior, who struck the edge of the ravine like a bundle of rags flung , and then tumbled to the bottom as dead as the jagged rock on which he lay.
 
The Wolf stood transfixed, unable to understand what had taken place. Then he saw the figure of the youthful warrior on the other side and heard his voice.
 
"Rattlesnake of a Winnebago! Die the death of the rattlesnake!"
 
The was given no time to protest again, for the words were yet in the mouth of Deerfoot when the flash of his rifle lit up the partial gloom, and the crack of the weapon with the death of the redskin, who end over end down the ravine and lay beside the body of Wau-ko-mia-tan as dead as he.
 
"Thus shall die all that seek to follow your footsteps," muttered the Shawanoe, who, where he stood when he both, proceeded to reload his rifle with as much coolness as though he had just fired at a target on a tree.
 
This finished, he let himself over the edge of the ravine, holding fast a moment by one hand, and then letting go, dropped lightly beside the two bodies that lay below. His face showed no excitement now, and he moved with his usual care and deliberation. Drawing the hunting-knife which he had taken from the Wolf, he partly over, but straightened up again, saying to himself:
 
"Deerfoot is a Indian and can not scalp a though as base as they."
 
Picking up each rifle (that of Wau-ko-mia-tan being still clutched by his nerveless fingers while the Wolf's had fallen from his grasp), he broke the locks of each by striking them on the stones. He then recovered his own tomahawk, and carried off the useless weapons with him.
 
He passed down the ravine until he reached a point where the sides were not so high. There he clambered out, still keeping the two broken guns. He had reached high ground on the side from which had come the Winnebagos,240 and he walked grimly forward, until in a brief while he reached the main trail over which he and the boys had passed a brief while before.
 
He turned toward the left, which led him in the direction of the camp of the Ozarks as well as toward the camp of Black Bear and his Winnebagos. He took longer steps than usual, but did not or run.
 
When he once more caught the of the camp-fire among the trees, he slackened his pace and drew nigh with the caution that had become a second nature to him. He quickly saw that the Winnebagos had disposed of themselves for the night. The fire was burning as brightly as ever, because of the attention it received from the two who were standing on guard............