ng in one hand, his spear at the trail in the
other.

He had evidently been running fast, and was out of breath as he came up
to cry in a low, hoarse voice:

"Now then all along--come quick, black fellow metancoly, come along
mumkull white."

"What!" cried the captain, "a number of black fellows coming to kill
us?"

"Hum. You shoot fast, mumkull black fellow, all go bong."

CHAPTER EIGHT.

"LET ME GO: I CAN RUN FAST."

The minute before, all peace, rest, and the promise of plenty; now, an
alarm so full of horror that every one there felt chilled.

A rush was made to the wagons for the guns and ammunition, the ladies
were hurried into the little square formed by the vehicles, as the
safest place, and the advantage of having an experienced soldier for
their leader was shown at once, though all the time the captain was
bitterly reproaching himself for not having spent more time in providing
for their defence, instead of giving up valuable hours to rest and
planning what they should do.

"I ought to have known better, Norman," he said angrily, as the boy
walked by his side to obey his orders, and convey them to one or the
other. "Take a lesson from it, my boy, and if ever you march in an
enemy's country, wherever you halt, do as the old Romans did; entrench
yourself at once."

"But we have entrenched ourselves, father," said the boy, pointing to
the boxes, barrels, and cases which had hastily been dragged out of the
carts and placed outside to form a protection before the openings
beneath the wagons, and also to fire over in case of an attack.

"Pooh! not half enough. There, we can do no more. Now about that
black.--Here, Jack, what do you say? Is that fellow in collusion with
the people coming on?"

"No," said Uncle Jack, decisively. "If he had been, he is cunning
enough to have lulled us into security. He need not have uttered a
warning, and the blacks could have surprised us after dark."

"Yes, there is something in that," said the captain. "And look what he
did, father, directly he had warned us."

"What?"

"Set to work with his boomerang covering the fire over with earth to
smother out the smoke."

"But it might all be cunning to put us off our guard with him, and it
would be a hideous danger to have a traitor in our little stronghold."

"For him," said Uncle Jack, grimly.

"Yes," said his brother. "But there, I'll trust him. I should not
display all this horrible suspicion if it