Still, no event, calculated to impress either party with any
decisive notion of the result, had yet taken place; and beyond the
injury done to the assailants in their first ill-advised assault, they
had suffered no serious harm. They were confident in themselves and
their leader--despised the squatters heartily--and, indeed, did not
suffer themselves for a moment to think of the possibility of their
defeat.
Thus the play proceeded in front of the defences, while Fullam silently
and industriously plied his way up the narrow gorge, covered entirely
from sight by the elevated ridges of rock, which, rising up boldly on
either side of the pass, had indeed been the cause of its formation. But
his enemy was on the alert; and the cunning of Munro--whom his
companions, with an Indian taste, had entitled the "Black Snake"--had
already prepared for the reception of the gallant Georgian. With a quick
eye he had observed the diminished numbers of the force in front, and
readily concluded, from the sluggishness of the affair in that quarter,
that a finesse was in course of preparation.
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