It is not very regularly preserved, but ever changing, ever in motion, like some vast constricting serpent that has thrown its body into a grand coil around its victim, to close when ready to give the fatal squeeze.
In this case the victim appears to have no hope of escape--no alternative but to succumb.
That the men sheltered behind the waggons have not "gone under" at the first onslaught is significative of their character.

Of a surety they are not common emigrants, crossing the prairies on their way to a new home.

Had they been so, they could not have "corralled" their unwieldy vehicles with such promptitude; for they had started from their night camp, and the attack was made while the train was in motion--advantage being taken of their slow drag through the soft, yielding sand.

And had they been but ordinary emigrants they would not have stood so stoutly on the defence, and shown such an array of dead enemies around them.

For among the savages outside can be seen at least a score of lifeless forms lying prostrate upon the plain.
For the time, there is a suspension of hostilities.