In such a coil as this I'd looped about me there was nothing for it, as it seemed, but to draw the steel and die as a soldier should. So I broke cover on the forest side of the holly1 thicket2 with a yell as fierce as theirs, and picked a tree to set my back against, and ran for it.
I never reached the tree. In mid3 career, when all the Cherokee wolf pack was bursting through the holly tangle4 at my heels, two men, a white man and an Indian, ran in ahead, as I supposed to cut me off. Just then the dry roof of the hunting lodge5 roared aflame, reddening the forest far and near. The light was at my back and on the faces of the two who ran to meet me. A great sob6 swelled7 in my throat and choked me, but I ran the faster. For these were my dear lad and the friendly Catawba, charging gallantly8 to cover my retreat.
It was a ready help in time of need. They ran in bravely, the chief ahead, twirling his tomahawk for the throw, with Dick a pace to right and rear, his two great pistols brandished9 and the grandsire of all the broadswords dangling10 by a thong11 at his wrist.
"Follow the chief!" he shouted in passing; and at the word the Catawba stopped short, sent his hatchet12 whistling into the yapping pack behind me, and swerved13 to run aside and point the way for me.
Left to myself, I hope I should have had the grace to stand with Jennifer. But at the turning point of indecision the quick-witted Indian read my thought, and snatching the sword from my hand, gave me no choice but to follow him.
So I ran with him; but as I fled I looked behind and saw a sight to put the ancient hero tales to the blush. One man against two-score my brave Dick stood, while through the underwood the mounted soldiery came to make the odds14 still greater.
He never flinched15 for all the hurtling missiles sent on ahead to cut him down, nor gave a glance aside to where the horsemen were deploying16 to surround him. As I looked, the two great pistols belched17 in the very faces of the nearest Cherokees; and in the momentary18 check the firearms made, the basket-hilted claymore went to work, rising and falling like a weaver's beam.
I saw no more; but some heart-bursting minutes later, when Jennifer came racing19 on behind to share the flight his heroic stand had made a possibility, the swelling20 sob choked me once again; and when I thought of what this his rescue of me meant to him, I could have blubbered like a boy.
But there was little time or space to give remorse21 an inning. The Cherokees, checked but for the moment, were storming hotly at our heels. And as we ran I heard the shouted command of Falconnet to his mounted men: "A rescue! Right oblique22, and head them in the road! Gallop23, you devils!"
We ran in Indian file, I at the chief's heels and Jennifer at mine. I followed the Catawba blindly; and being as yet little better than half a man in breath and muscle, was well-nigh spent before we crashed down through a tangled24 briar thicket into the river road.
We were in time, but with no fraction of a minute to spare. We could hear the pad-pad-pad of the light-footed runners close upon us, following now by the noise we made; and on our left the air was trembling to the thunder of the mounted men coming at a break-neck gallop down the road.
"Thank God!" says Richard, with a quick eyeshot to right and left in the lesser25 gloom of the open. "I was afeard even the chief might miss the place in the dark. Down the bank to the river!—quick, man, and cautious! If they smell us out now, we're no better than buzzard-meat!" And when we reached the water's edge: "You taught me how to paddle a pirogue, Jack26; I hope you haven't lost the knack27 of it yourself."
"No," said I; and the three of us slid the hollowed log into the stream.
We were afloat in shortest order, holding the canoe against the current by clinging to the overhanging trees that fringed the bank; yet with paddles poised28 for a second dash for freedom should the need arise. I should have dipped forthwith to save the precious minutes, but Jennifer stayed me.
"Hist!" he whispered. "Hold steady and listen. T............