Lexington gazette. [volume] (Lexington, Va.) 1871-1962, 1904-06-22

wood toward the forest beyond.
That afternoon and evening
tramped many miles. At nightfal
being utterly tagged out, | tire,
myself upon the turf beside smal
stream and was soon sound asleep.
/ awoke a little after dawn, col
and stiff and desperately hungry
l was about to move along when
was startled to hear cracklin,
among the brushwood. l set m
teeth and brought my rifle to m,
shoulder, ready to fire as soon as tn
thing should break cover.
Presently who should stagger int
view but Jed, the poor fellow read,
to drop with fatigue and hunger
We started off, but soon Jed, VIII
was carrying the gun, while clam
boring over the rocks made a mis-
step and fell. The weapon flew
from his hand, and, the trigger
striking hard against a stump, I
loud report followed among the sur
rounding hills.
But that was not the worst. Jed's
ankle received a very bad twist in
his fall, and for some minutes the
poor fellow was agonized with pain
Now we noticed a column OF
smoke rising nearly opposite our po-
sition from the other bank of the
river.
"a signalw cried Jed. "They
must have heard the report. What
clumsy idiot | wasp
"And see," said l, there's an an
swering signal to the right and an
other to the left. But we've got a
good start of them, and before they
strike our trail We must be miles
away"
All that afternoon we toiled on
ward over our rugged course. Mean
time, however, Jed's wounded ankle
grew worse, until at sunset it was
swollen to twice its natural size, and
he could proceed no farther.
Twilight slowly darkened into
night. The moon rose and cast her
fading light upon the scene. A more
welcome light, think, l shall never
behold.
Presently signal fires Oh the hills
near by told us that the rest of our
enemies were close at hand. Again
/ looked to the printing of my gun
and otherwise prepared for action.
For fully twenty minutes we
heard nothing Of our foes, though
we knew we'll the cowardly fellows
were debating how best to reach us.
Then from their ambush in the wild
oats we heard voices, as though they
were encouraging each other to
charge, and we realized that the
crisis was at hand.
Suddenly was startled by an ex-
clamation from Jed.
ats all up, Joe~ he cried. "Ns
use firing. The villains have got us
in the rear"
"Hist, boys, hist'' whispered a
voice from the bow of the canoe.
Good heavens, it's Wattie~
"Aye, boys, and just in the nick
of time. Catch hold of this hyar
line and haul us in right smart"
This was done, and all so quietly
and quickly that the Indians knew
nothing of our re-enforcements. A
minute later they broke cover, rush
ed into the open and, with blood
curdling yell, charged pellmell down
upon us.
Fire shouted Waite in voice
that rang loud above the uproar,
and instantly five spouts of flame
flashed in the faces of our foes.
Surprised, thunderstruck, utterly
discounted, the advancing body
reeled back from the volley they had
so little expected.
CATER 'em, boys! yelled Waite,
leaping up over the bank and Civ
ing chase. We sent them flying in
all directions, each Indian intent
only on securing his personal safety.
Then, returning to the bank, we
sought our two fallen foes. The
first we came up to was lying face
downward, having pitched forward
as a bullet found his heart. Turn
ing him over, we found he was none
other than the villainous Wah-kia-
na.-George II. Wesley in Boston
Globe.