It is
likely, also, that the Iroquois at first had thought only a
single man was with the fugitives, not knowing that the five had
joined them later.
Two of the Iroquois were slain at the very edge of the solid
ground, but their bodies fell back in the slime, and the others,
retreating fast for their lives, could not carry them off. Paul,
with a kind of fascinated horror, watched the dead painted bodies
sink deeper. Then one was entirely gone. The hand of the other
alone was left, and then it, too, was gone. But the five had
held the island, and Carpenter was leading the fugitives on
toward Fort Penn. They had not only held it, but they believed
that they could continue to hold it against anything, and their
hearts became exultant. Something, too, to balance against the
long score, lay out there in the swamp, and all the five, bitter
over Wyoming, were sorry that Braxton Wyatt was not among them.
The stillness came again. The sun did not break through the
heavy gray sky, and the somber shadows brooded over "The Shades
of Death." They heard again the splash of water animals, and a
swimming snake passed on the murky surface. Then they heard the
wolf's long cry, and the long cry of wolf replying.
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