As he did so, he recalled the fact that he had but a single charge, and that, as a consequence, a miss would be the death-warrant of himself as well as of his child.

But he knew his eye and hand would never fail him.

His finger already pressed the trigger, when he was restrained by an unforeseen impediment.
While the deadly rifle was poised, the boy stretched himself up at full length, a movement which made known to the father that his child was exactly in range with the Indian himself, and that a bullet passing through the head of the savage could not fail to bury itself in the little fellow's body.

This startling circumstance arrested the pressure of the trigger at the very moment the ball was to be sped upon its errand of death.
The missionary sunk down upon one knee, with the intention of bringing the head of the savage so high as to carry the bullet over the body of his boy, but this he found could not be done without too seriously endangering his aim.

He drew a bead from one side of the tree, and then from the other, but from both stand-points the same dreadful danger threatened.