OHITIKA IS WOUNDED
Almost instantaneously a death cry rent the air, proving that the bullet
had hit either Slow Dog or his companion.
"Ugh!" grunted Hawk Eye. "Slow Dog's trick has failed him. The odds are
two to one in our favor." Hardly had he finished speaking when an arrow
struck the ledge of rocks behind which they were crouching.
"Slow Dog is no mean marksman," said Raven Wing. "We must not be
careless."
As Hawk Eye reloaded his gun, he noticed, in spite of the gathering
gloom, blood stains upon the stock. For several moments he regarded them
in silence. Then turned to Raven Wing.
"I think I have a plan that will work well," he said. "Come here,
Ohitika," he cried, squatting down on the floor of the cave. The
faithful dog came fawning to his feet.
"Smell, smell!" he commanded, placing the blood stained gunstock close
to the dog's nose.
Ohitika answered with a growl. It was enemy smell to him. He had not
forgotten that Slow Dog had kicked him.
"Take your gun and hold the dog by the collar," said Hawk Eye to Raven
Wing. Again resting his gun on the ledge of rock, he fired. Before the
echoes of the report had died away, a second arrow entered the cave's
mouth and struck the rock wall in the rear.
"Come, follow me, before Slow Dog finds time to fit another arrow to his
bow," said Hawk Eye.
Raven Wing obeyed. When out of the cave, and to one side of the opening,
Hawk Eye seized Raven Wing's loaded gun and gave him his. "Load it," he
said in a low voice, grasping the leather thong about Ohitika's neck to
give Raven Wing the free use of both hands. Then, like three shadows,
the two boys and the dog, glided into the dense darkness. Almost
immediately Hawk Eye released his hold upon the dog and whispered, "Go
get him! Go get him!"
As Ohitika darted off in the murky darkness, Raven Wing all but tripped
over the body of the Chippeway he had killed. Forgetting the urgent need
to reach the canoes, he felt with his hand for the Chippeway's scalp
lock. Grasping it tightly in his left hand, he deftly circled it at its
base with his knife and tore it away.
"You are now a warrior," whispered Hawk Eye.
Groping their way toward the beach, they made as much speed as safety
would permit. Hawk Eye's course proved straight and true and in a few
minutes they heard the river water lapping at the sand. Suddenly, from a
distance, came a series of yaps and barks. Confident that Ohitika aided
by the darkness would be above to hold Slow Dog at bay for a reasonable
length of time, Hawk Eye whispered, "I must find the body of the
Chippeway I killed!" Hardly were the words out of his mouth when he
came upon it stretched over the bow of one of the canoes.
As he bent over to obtain the highly prized scalp, Raven Wing
noiselessly launched the two enemy canoes and gave them a push to set
them in the current. The paddles, which he had removed before launching,
he laid in his own canoe, but as he was about to set it afloat, Hawk Eye
said;
"We can't leave the dog."
"It is the only way out," answered Raven Wing. "Come, push off your
canoe."
"No," said Hawk Eye. "I will not leave Ohitika."
For a moment Raven Wing paused. Then, seizing hold of Hawk Eye's canoe,
he dragged it off the beach. As the yelps and barks drew nearer, he
climbed into his. Hawk Eye, stepping slowly into his craft, sat down and
raised his gun to his shoulder.
Suddenly the barking changed to a yell of pain.
"Ohitika has been hit by an arrow," cried Hawk Eye, and he fired his
gun into the air.
"'Twill warn Slow Dog to halt and also enable Ohitika to lay a straight
course to us," went on Hawk Eye.
As the canoes began to drift away from shore, the sound of a sudden
splash caused Hawk Eye to exclaim in a low voice, "Ohitika is swimming
toward us."
Laying down his gun, he picked up his paddle and noiselessly dipped it
in the water to check the canoe's progress.
[Illustration: {Wolf.}]