Page:Marching on Niagara.djvu/309

Rh the cloth of Henry's jacket. Then, finding himself wounded and defenseless, the Frenchman lost no time in retreating and was soon lost to sight behind the trees.

Now was no time to thank Barringford for what he had done, for the fighting still continued on every side. Dave helped his cousin to his feet, and soon the pair, with the faithful old frontiersman, were again in the thick of the fray. The forest was heavy with gun smoke so that in spots but little could be seen, and more than once it happened that one side or the other fired into the ranks of its friends.

Inside of quarter of an hour our friends found themselves in something of an open spot bordering the river, at a point where the rapids rushed furiously along the rocks on their way to the lake. Here, as they were moving forward, to join a body of English soldiers fifty yards away, they were suddenly confronted by a body of Iroquois who came upon them uttering the most horrible war-cries the youths had ever heard, and brandishing their tomahawks and scalping knives.

"On yer guard thar!" came from Barringford. "They air after us hot-footed now!"

He swung around, and as the nearest Iroquois came within a dozen steps of him, he let the savage