Then
the ambush would be complete, and Henry saw the skill of the savage
general whoever he might be.
The plan must be frustrated at once, and Henry Ware never hesitated. He
must bring on the battle, before his own people were surrounded, and
raising his rifle he fired with deadly aim at one of the chiefs who fell
on the grass. Then the youth raised the wild and thrilling cry, which he
had learned from the savages themselves, and sped back toward the white
force.
The death cry of the Shawnee and the hostile war whoop rang together
filling the forest and telling that the end of stealth and cunning, and
the beginning of open battle were at hand.
Henry Ware was hidden in an instant by the green foliage from the sight
of the Shawnees. Keen as were their eyes, trained as they were to
noticing everything that moved in the forest, he had vanished from them
like a ghost. But they knew that the enemy whom they had sought to draw
into their snare had slipped his head out of it before the snare could
be sprung. Their long piercing yell rose again and then died away in a
frightful quaver. As the last terrible note sank the whole savage army
rushed forward to destroy its foe.
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