d more than a hand and arm with one side of the face, the rest of
the body being always hidden behind the trunk of some great tree. But
our shots did good to this extent, for whenever the enemy made a
determined rush, as if to reach a spot opposite to where the boats
glided down stream, a little volley invariably sent them back to cover.

Still by darting from tree to tree, or crawling under the thick bushes,
they kept close in our wake, and poor Sarah's encumbrances proved
invaluable, the box and huge bundle forming excellent shelter, from
behind which we could fire, saving the woman too as she lay right in the
bottom of the boat; for the arrows came fast--_whizz, whizz, whizz_, now
sticking in the box with a hollow sounding rap, or into the big bundle
in the other boat with a dull, thudding sound, till both box and bundle
actually bristled with the missiles.

"Keep your head down, my boy," my father kept saying to me. "Only look
up when you are going to fire."

This was good advice, but I did not see that he took it to himself, and
I kept feeling a curious shrinking sensation as some better-aimed arrow
than usual struck the box close to his head.

And so we went slowly on, my father dividing his time between loading,
firing, and directing Pomp and Hannibal how to row, so as to keep the
boats one behind the other, and diagonally across the stream, so that
our sheltering defences might be presented square to the enemy, who
followed us along the bank.

I'm afraid--and yet I do not know that I ought to speak like that of a
set of savages who were thirsting for our blood--several of the Indians
went down severely wounded, not from my firing, but from that of Morgan,
for I saw them stagger and fall three times over after his shots. What
happened after my father's I could not see, for we were close together,
and the smoke obscured everything.

For fully ten minutes this duel between lead and arrow went on, but no
one on our side was hurt, though we had some very narrow escapes. I
felt one arrow give quite a twitch at my hair as it passed close to my
temple, and another went through my father's hat. In the other boat too
Morgan kept answering to our inquiries, and telling us that all was
right, only that some of the arrows had come, as he termed it, "precious
nigh, look you."

"We shall not shake them off," said my father, "till we reach the mouth
and get into the big river, when I hope our firing will be heard an