A veil of smoke lay low among the ferns in front of us. There was a terrible silence in the forest, then screech on screech rent the air, as the panther slogan rang out from our unseen foes; and, like a dreadful echo, my Oneidas hurled their war cry back at them; and we all sprang to our feet and moved swiftly forward, crouching low in our own rifle smoke. There came a shot, and a cloud spread among the boughs of a tall hemlock; but the fellow left his tree and slid down on t'other side, like a squirrel, and my wild Saguenay was after him in a flash. I saw the Oneidas looking on as though stupefied; saw the Saguenay, shoulder deep in witch-hopple, seize something, heard the mad struggle, and ran forward with Tahioni, only to hear the yelping scalp-cry of the Montagnais, and see him in the tangle of witch-hopple, both knees on his victim's shoulders, ripping off the scalp, his arms and body spattered with blood. The stupefaction of the Oneidas lasted but a second, then their battle yell burst out in jealous fury indescribable. I saw Tahioni chasing a strange Indian through a little hollow full of ferns; saw Godfrey Shew raise his rifle and kill the fugitive as coolly as though he were a running buck. Nick, his shoulder against a beech tree, stood firing with great deliberation at something I could not see. The three Frenchmen, de Golyer, Luysnes, and Johnny, had gone around, as though deer driving, and were converging upon a little wooded knoll, from which a hard-wood hogback ran east. Over this distant ridge, like shadows, I could see somebody's light feet running, checkered against the sunshine beyond, and I fired, judging a man's height, if stooping. And saw something dark fall and roll down into a gully full o' last year's damp and rotting leaves. Re-charging my rifle, I strove to realize that I had slain, but could not, so fierce the flame in me was burning at the thought of the children's scalps these Iroquois had taken. "Is he down, Johnny Silver?" I bawled. "Fairly paunched!" shouted Luysnes. "Tell your Oneidas they can take his hair, for I shan't touch it." But Johnny Silver, in no wise averse, did that office very cheerfully. "Nom de Dieu!" he panted, tugging at the oiled lock and wrenching free the scalp; "I have one veree fine jou-jou, sacré garce! I take two; mek for me one fine wallet!" Down by the river the rifles were cracking fast and a smoke mist filled the woods. Ranging widely eastward we had turned their left flank--now their right--and were forcing them to a choice between the Sacandaga trail southward or the bee-line back to Canada by the left bank of West River. How many there were of them I never have truly learned; but that scarcely matters to the bravest Indian, when ambuscaded and taken so completely by surprise from the rear. No Indians can stand that, and but few white men are able to rally under such circumstances.