Yet the conflict, as important to those engaged in it, as a great battle between civilized foes, a hundred thousand on a side, and far more fierce, yet hung on an even chance.

The white men still stood where they had stood when the forest battle began, and the red men who had not been able to advance would not retreat.
Henry's heart sank a little at the signs that night was coming; it would be harder in the darkness to keep their forces in touch, and the superior numbers of the Shawnees would swarm all about them.

It seemed to him that it would be best to withdraw a little to more open ground; but he waited a while, because he did not wish any of their movements to have the color of retreat.

Moreover, the activity of the Shawnees rose just then to a higher pitch.
Figures were now invisible in the chill, wet dusk, fifty or sixty yards away, and the two lines came closer.

The keenest eye could see nothing save flitting forms like phantoms, but the riflemen, trained to quickness, fired at them and more than once sent a fatal bullet.