During this operation
he stopped every minute or two and listened with his ear on the
ground; but except a faint stamping noise from the distant cattle
all was quiet.
All being prepared, Mr. Hardy took the signal rocket, and placing
it at a much higher angle than that intended for the others, struck
a match and applied it to the touch-paper. In a moment afterward
there was a loud roar, and the rocket soared up, with its train of
brilliant sparks behind it, and burst almost over the Indian camp.
Five or six balls of an intense white light broke from it, and
gradually fell toward the ground, lighting tip the whole
surrounding plain.
A yell of astonishment and fear broke from the Indians, and in a
moment another rocket rushed out.
Mr. Hardy watched its fiery way with anxiety, and saw with delight
that its direction was true. Describing a slight curve, it rushed
full at the black mass, struck something, turned abruptly, and then
exploded with a loud report, followed instantly by a cracking
noise, like a straggling fusillade of musketry.
It had scarcely ceased before the third followed it, greeted, like
its predecessors, with a yell from the Indians.
Its success was equal to that of its predecessors, and Mr. Hardy
was delighted by the sound of a dull, heavy noise, like distant
thunder, and knew, that the success was complete, and that he had
stampeded the cattle.
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