emphasise his words. "Mass' George hear de fock--lose him lil self
an holler, and he only tink it de--Ah, look! Look, Mass' George, look!
Who dat?"

He pointed back up the steam, where at the edge of the bank that the
river swept round previous to passing along the straight reach, there
stood two tall figures, their feathers and wild dress thrown up by the
bright glare of the setting sun. They were evidently reconnoitring, and
though we saw them clearly for a few seconds, the next moment they
seemed to have died away.

"Indians," said my father, drawing in his breath with a low hiss; "and
we must not neglect this warning. Morgan, I'll get in here with the
boys; you go back, make your boat fast at the landing-place, and run up
to the house, and bring your wife and Hannibal down."

"But the things in the house, sir?"

"Lives are of more importance than chattels, man," said my father, in
his sternest and most military way. "Tell your wife she is to stop for
nothing, but to come."

"An' s'pose she won't, sir?" said Morgan sharply.

"Carry her," said my father laconically, as he stepped into our boat and
pushed the other off.

"But bring nothing else, sir?" said Morgan, piteously.

"Yes; two guns, and all the ammunition you can carry; but be quick, man,
we shall be waiting at the landing-place. The Indians are coming in
earnest now. We shall stop till you come, and open fire if it is
necessary." My father capped the gun he had brought from the boat.
"Stop. Hand me your gun and pouches."

Morgan gave a stroke or two with his oar, and brought the boats
alongside of each other again, then handed the gun to me.

"Now then," said my father, "off! Remember, I shall be trying to keep
the Indians at bay if they show, and delay on your part may mean the
loss of our lives and--your own."

Morgan gave his head a sharp nod, bent to his oars, and my father turned
to me, and cried, as if he were addressing a line of men--

"Load!"

CHAPTER THIRTY ONE.

I believe my hands trembled, but I stood up firmly in the boat and
charged the heavy piece, making the ramrod leap, as I had been told,
examined the priming, and then, in obedience to my father's sign, sat
down.

Pomp had taken both oars, and was dipping them gently from time to time,
to keep the boat's head straight, and after a long look up the reach, my
father sat down too.

"Let's see, George," he said, "we are about a mile above the
landing-place, an