But, for a minute or two, he would not have been steady enough to aim at anything.

His tongue was dry in his mouth, and his hair lifted a little at his marvelous escape.
He looked for the shadow, his eyes searching every thicket; but he did not find it, and now he believed that the one who had sped the blow had gone, biding his time for a second chance.

Another wait to make sure, and hurrying to the hollow he awoke Tayoga and the hunter, who returned at once with him to the place where the ambush had miscarried.
"Ah!" said the Onondaga, as they looked about.

_"Osquesont_! Behold!" The blade of an Indian tomahawk, _osquesont_, was buried deep in the trunk of a tree, and Robert knew that the same deadly weapon had whistled where his head had been but a second before.

He shuddered.