oples, for the boy gave his woolly sconce a good scratch with first
one hand and then the other.

"Dat berry 'tupid," he said at last; "Pomp no 'tink of dat. What we do
now?"

I stood musing for a few minutes as puzzled as he was. Then the bright
thought came, and I took the lighter of the two canes, cut off the most
pliant part, and then tearing my silk neckerchief in thin strips, I
split the end of the cane, thrust in the haft of the knife, so that it
was held as by a fork, and bound the cane tightly down the length of the
knife-handle, and also below, so that the wood should split no farther;
and as the knife was narrow in blade, and ran to a sharp point, we now
had a formidable lance, with shaft fully twelve feet long.

"There!" I said triumphantly in turn, as I looked at Pomp.

"'Tick um froo de fis?" he said.

"Yes. We must find some deep pool, and see if we cannot spear
something, so as to be food for the day."

"Mass' George 'tick um fis, Pomp find um."

I nodded, eager enough to try and get something in the way of food, so
that we might be better able to bear our day's journey, for I felt that
somehow we must get back; but I always hesitated from starting, lest we
should be seen by pursuing Indians, and being recaptured, have no chance
of giving the alarm at home.

Pomp was not long in finding a deep hole close under the bank, in whose
clear, tree-shaded water I could see about a dozen fish slowly gliding
about. They were only small, but anything was food for us then; and
introducing my lance cautiously, I waited my opportunity, and then
struck rapidly at a fish.

Vain effort! The fish was out of reach before the point of the knife
could reach him; and a few more such strokes emptied the hole, but not
in the way I intended.

"Find another," I said; and Pomp crept along, and soon signed to me to
come.

As he made way for me, and I crept to the edge, I felt a thrill of
pleasure, for there, close under the bank, just balanced over some
water-weed, was a fine fish about a foot and a half long.

"If I can get you," I thought, "we shall do."

Carefully getting my spear-shaft upright, I lowered the point, and
aiming carefully, I struck.

Whether I aimed badly, or the refraction of the water was not allowed
for, I cannot say, but there was no result. I only saw a quivering of
the surface and the fish was off into the river.

The same result for a dozen more tries, and then Pomp said
protestin