Page:Flint and Feather (1914).djvu/57

 But they searched in vain for the Cattle Thief: that lion had left his lair, And they cursed like a troop of demons—for the women alone were there. "The sneaking Indian coward," they hissed; "he   hides while yet he can; He'll come in the night for cattle, but he's scared    to face a man." "Never!" and up from the cotton woods rang the voice of Eagle Chief; And right out into the open stepped, unarmed, the Cattle Thief. Was that the game they had coveted? Scarce fifty years had rolled Over that fleshless, hungry frame, starved to the bone and old; Over that wrinkled, tawny skin, unfed by the warmth of blood. Over those hungry, hollow eyes that glared for the sight of food.

He turned, like a hunted lion: "I know not fear," said he; And the words outleapt from his shrunken lips in   the language of the Cree. "I'll fight you, white-skins, one by one, till I   kill you all," he said; But the threat was scarcely uttered, ere a dozen balls of lead Whizzed through the air about him like a shower of metal rain,