Page:Barbour--Metipoms Hostage.djvu/139

Rh the sentinel. He placed his wooden spear across the gateway and rattled it fearsomely. David drew back. As he did so his glance lifted to the nearer of the two watch towers. Against the hot haze of the noonday sky a straight and motionless figure stood like a  statue in bronze and gazed southward. With vastly more respect for Metipom’s vigilance, David went slowly and thoughtfully back toward his wigwam.

Some of the younger lads were practicing shooting with their bows and arrows, their  mark the bowl of a broken clay pipe which  they had set up against the peeled logs of  the palisade. David paused and looked on. Their bows were smaller than those of their fathers and their arrows shorter, and the  range was not long, but David was surprised  at the accuracy of their marksmanship. One youth, whose age could have been no more  than ten, twice set the thorn-tipped head of  his arrow close beside the tiny target, whereat  David exclaimed, “Winnet! Winnet!” (“Good! Good!”), and the others began to cry “Winnet!” too, more, it seemed, for the  sake of noise than aught else, while the  small, naked boy, whose skin was the color  of a young fawn, marched about with ridicu-