"If the life of thee tribe was in thee bosom," he cried, with a look of unrelenting fury, of hatred deep and ineffaceable, "thee should die the dog's death, as thee does!" And with a blow furiously struck, and thrice repeated, he despatched the struggling savage as he lay.
He rose, brandishing the bloody hatchet, and looked for his companion.

He found him upon the earth, lying upon the breast of his antagonist, whom it had been his good fortune to over-master.

Both had thrown their hatchets, and both without effect, Roland because skill was wanting, and the Shawnee because, in the act of throwing, he had stumbled over the body of one of his comrades, so as to disorder his aim, and even to deprive him of his footing.

Before he could recover himself, Roland imitated Nathan's example, and threw himself upon the unlucky Indian,--a youth, as it appeared, whose strength, perhaps at no moment equal to his own, had been reduced by recent wounds,--and found that he had him entirely at his mercy.

This circumstance, and the knowledge that the other Indians were now overpowered, softened the soldier's wrath; and when Nathan, rushing to assist him, cried aloud to him to move aside, that he might "knock the assassin knave's brains out," Roland replied by begging Nathan to spare his life.