"Just so, just so," assented Ogden from his lookout on the porch. "If they tumble the nations down on their heads we are not to blame. There goes another boat-load."
With the whoops of the old voyageurs McKay's men dragged the only piece of artillery, a rusty nine-pounder, around the Cascades in a driving snow.
The painted Cayuses were out on their painted horses, galloping on the hills. It was a thrilling sight. Every eminence was filled with Indian men and women, as on a grand review, to witness the defeat of the Bostons. They looked with contempt on these immigrants. Had they not borne with meekness and patience the insults and robberies of the preceding autumn, and autumns and autumns before?
"Ho-ha-ha-ha-ha a! "laughed the demoniac chorus on the hills. "The Bostons are women. We will kill them with clubs. We will go to the valley and steal their women. Never shall the Americans drink of the waters of the Umatilla."
"Ho-ho-ho-ho o! "screamed War Eagle, chief of the dreamer-drummers, prancing out in face of the foe. " I am a great tew- at. I bear a charmed life. I can swallow molten lead; powder and shot cannot harm me! "
"Well, then, let him swallow this," said Tom McKay, raising his silver-mounted rifle. One click the boaster headlong bit the dust. A shot from another shattered the arm of Five Crows. He dropped his gun like smoke the Indian cavalry disappeared, demoralized by the sudden and unexpected loss of their leaders whom they had supposed invulnerable. In Homeric song the leaders fought the battles; so here in this Pacific Iliad. The spectators melted from the hills.
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