Page:Edward Ellis--Seth Jones.djvu/109

106 "No; I've been watching you and that chap's doubling, to see who'll get the best, so long, that I didn't think of it."

"Load again, for s'posen this gun should miss fire too, he'd get off then sure. Wal, my stars! if he isn't coming out now."

The Indian, as if scorning the danger, rose slowly from the water, and walked leisurely toward the shelter of the wood.

"Now, my fine feller, see if you can dodge this."

Seth once more aimed at the retreating Indian, and this time pulled the trigger; but to his unutterable chagrin, the rifle flashed in the pan! Before Haldidge could finish loading his gun, and before Seth could even reprime his, the Indian had disappeared in the wood.

"By the hokey-pokey! what's got into the guns!" exclaimed Seth in a perfect fury. "That's twice I've been fooled! Worse'n two slaps in the face by a purty woman, I'll swow. Hallo! what's that?"

The discharge of a rifle across the river had sent the bullet so close to him as to whisk off a tuft of his long sandy hair!

"By gracious! that was pretty well done," he exclaimed, scratching his head as though he was slightly wounded.

"Look out, for heaven's sake! Get down!" called Graham, seizing him by the skirt of his hunting dress, and jerking him downward.

"Don't know but what it is the best plan," replied the imperturbable Seth, going down on his knees in time to avoid another foul shot. "There are plenty of the imps about, ain't there?"

The firing so alarmed Haverland that he desisted from his work, and sought the shelter of the wood. By this time, too, the afternoon was so far advanced that darkness had already commenced settling over the stream and wood. Crossing on the raft was now out of the question, for it would have been nothing less than suicide to have attempted it, when their enemies had given them such convincing evidence of their skill in the use of the rifle, even at a greater distance than to the middle of the stream. But the river had to be crossed for all that, and the only course left, was to shift their position to some other place, build a new raft, and make another place.

There was no excuse for further delay, and the party