The Pioneer Boys of the Ohio; or, Clearing the Wilderness — John Shaqi
The Pioneer Boys of the Ohio; or, Clearing the WildernessRathborne, St. George
General
The Pioneer Boys of the Ohio; or, Clearing the Wilderness
Rathborne, St. George
Frontier and pioneer life -- Juvenile fiction; Ohio River -- Juvenile fiction
Sandy fell in with the idea at once, although he realized the danger.
"Give the word, then, Bob, and let me go. Anything is better than this
suspense," he said, immediately, starting to get on his feet.
"If you hear me shout, drop flat," the elder brother said,
impressively. "That will mean he is trying to shoot at you. And if you
hear the report of my gun, seek shelter behind some tree."
The last thing Sandy heard as he gained a half-erect position, and
started off on a lope, was the click of Bob's gun-lock as he prepared
for business. No doubt the boy's heart was pounding like a hammer as
he thus exposed himself to the aim of an enemy; but, nothing daunted,
he kept right on, looking to the right and to the left as he scurried
along.
And Bob, left behind amid the bushes, lifted his head slowly, so that
he could see all that transpired, a grim expression on his young face,
such as the stern realities of those early days stamped upon many a
boyish countenance.
Ha! There was a movement not far away that his keen ear caught. Not
turning his head a particle he twisted his eyes around to the left,
and immediately discovered a bent figure that was skulking along, now
dodging behind a tree, and anon crouching flat, as Sandy threatened to
look around.
It was an Indian, rigged out in all the horrid paint and feathers that
marked a Shawanee brave on the warpath. He gripped a short, but stout,
bow in his hands; and even as Bob caught sight of him seemed to be
fitting a feathered shaft to the tense gut that served as a cord.
Undoubtedly it was his intention to shoot again, and this time, as
Sandy's back would be turned, there was a strong probability that the
arrow might find a victim.
Bob looked no further; his mind was made up, and, raising his
flint-lock musket to his shoulder, he glanced hastily along the barrel.
The red man was in the very act of letting fly his arrow when the bang
of the heavily charged musket awoke the echoes of the forest. Sandy had
not forgotten his part in the programme, for no sooner did he hear that
discharge than he made a quick spring to a neighboring beech tree,
back of which he crouched, ready to do his part in the game.
The Indian fell down, but, immediately scrambling to his feet with a
whoop, ran off like a frightened deer. He was holding his right arm as
he went, from which fact Bob gained the opinion that his hastily sent
bullet must have struck that part of the enemy's anatomy.
Then he vanished in the depths of the forest, while Bob reloaded as
fast as he could work his hands.
"Are there any more of them?" called Sandy, as he poked his gun out
from behind the beech, ready to make use of the same at the slightest
provocation.
"I do not think so," replied Bob, considerably relieved at not
discovering a horde of dusky figures rushing toward them, as he had
feared would be the case.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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