Dozens of mounted militiamen were streaming past his tree, galloping right under him. The hoofbeats of the horses and the shouts of the men to one another, pitched high with terror, shattered the night air. He saw the black shapes of more horses and riders swimming through the prairie grass. Their elated cries were Sauk war whoops. The braves of his tribe, racing toward him as if to rescue him. A sun rose in his breast. Rifles boomed and arrows whistled through the air after the fleeing militiamen, and he was thankful that he was up this high. He heard screams. Somewhere nearby a body crashed into shrubbery. Some long knives, he saw, were trying to go around the woods, but the greater distance they had to travel gave the Sauk riders time to catch up with them. Rifle shots flashed like lightning in the darkness. Two shadowy figures on foot, so close together they seemed one, stumbled out of the tall grass and pushed their way into the woods, careless of the noise they were making. White Bear held his breath, hoping they would not discover him above them. A voice below him said, "You got to keep going. They'll catch you and tomahawk you sure." Now the two men were standing by the tree in which he had taken shelter. He strained his ears to listen. "Save yourself," said another voice, rasping with pain. "I cannot run. The arrow is under my kneecap. I will stay here and try to hold them off." _I know that voice, that accent. It is the Prussian, Otto Wegner._ White Bear remembered how Wegner had disappointed him back at Raoul's camp. Now his life was in danger; he deserved that. "Hold them off? There's hunnerds of them." He'd heard the other man's voice before, but he sounded like so many long knives, White Bear could not be sure that he knew him. "Well, maybe if I shoot a few of them, you can get away." At that White Bear felt anger heating up in his chest. So Wegner would like to shoot a few Indians, would he? Being willing to stay and fight while his comrade got away, though--that was worthy of respect. "Damn! I don't like leaving you, Otto." "You have a wife and children." "So do you." "But you have a chance to get away. I don't. What good is it, two of us dead? Go!" White Bear heard a sigh. "All right. Here's all my powder and shot. I ain't planning to stop to use them. Remember, keep your head low so you can see them above the horizon. If they ain't wearing hats, you can figger they're Injuns." "Please, Levi, my wife and my children, tell how I died." That was who the other man was--Levi Pope, another of Raoul's men. "I'll tell them you was brave. Make sure they don't catch you alive, Otto. You know what Injuns do to white people. Use your last bullet on yourself."