“I make the motion, Mr. Panther,” said Crockett, “that you form a speedy plan of action for us, an’ I trust that our young friend Ned here will second it.”

“I second the motion,” said Ned.

“It is carried unanimously.  Now, Mr. Panther, we await your will.”

“It’s my will that we git back to the rest of the men as soon as we can.  I reckon, Mr. Crockett, that them Tennesseans of yours wouldn’t head in the other direction if a fight grew hot.”

“I reckon that wild horses couldn’t drag ’em away,” said Crockett dryly.

“Then we’ll go back an’ j’in ’em.”

“To hold a caucus, so to speak.”

“I don’t know what a cow-cuss is.”

“It’s Congressional for a conference.  Don’t mind these parliamentary expressions of mine, Mr. Panther.  They give me pleasure an’ they hurt nobody.”

They reached the Tennesseans without interruption, and the Panther quickly laid his plan before them.  They would advance within a quarter of a mile of the cabin, tie their horses in the thickest of the brush, leave four men to guard them, then the rest would go forward to help the besieged.

Crockett’s eyes twinkled when the Panther announced the campaign in a few words.

“Very good; very good,” he said.  “A steering committee could not have done better.  That also is parliamentary, but I think you understand it.”

They heard detached shots again and then a long yell.

“They’re Comanches,” said the Panther.  “I know their cry, an’ I guess there’s a lot of them.”

Ned hoped that the shout did not mean the achieving of some triumph.  They reached presently a dense growth of brush, and there the horses were tied.  Four reluctant Tennesseans remained with them and the rest crept forward.  They did not hear any shot after they left the horses until they were within three hundred yards of the house.  Then an apparition caused all to stop simultaneously.

A streak of flame shot above the trees, curved and fell.  It was followed by another and another.  Ned was puzzled, but the Panther laughed low.

“This can’t be fireworks on election night,” said Davy Crockett.  “It seems hardly the place for such a display.”

“They’re fireworks, all right,” said the Panther, “but it’s not election night.  You’re correct about that part of it.  Look, there goes the fourth an’ the fifth.”

Two more streaks of flame curved and fell, and Ned and Crockett were still puzzled.

“Them’s burnin’ arrers,” said the Panther.  “It’s an old trick of the Injuns.  If they had time enough they’d be sure to set the cabin on fire, and then from ambush they’d shoot the people as they ran out.  But what we’re here for is to stop that little game of theirs.  The flight of the arrers enables us to locate the spot from which they come an’ there we’ll find the Comanches.”

They crept toward the point from which the lighted arrows were flying, and peering; from the thicket saw a score or more of Comanches gathered in the bushes and under the trees.  One of the Tennesseans, seeking a better position, caused a loud rustling, and the alert Comanches, instantly taking alarm, turned their attention to the point from which the sound had come.