d put
them on their guard at the settlement. So don't spare your shots when
we get well out. They will be doing double duty--scaring the enemy and
warning our friends. That's right, Pompey, my lad, pull steadily."

"Iss, massa, pull berry 'tead'ly," said the boy, grinning.

"As soon as we get a little farther we will relieve you, my lad; and
then, George," he said, turning to me, "we must row hard for the
settlement, unless," he added, sadly, "the enemy are before us, and
then--Hah!"

I started at the moment when my father uttered that ejaculation, for an
arrow dropped between us, and stuck quivering in the thwart, standing
nearly upright, as if it had fallen from the clouds.

"They have altered their tactics," said my father. "Look there."

Another arrow fell with a faint _plop_ into the river close to the edge
of the boat. "They find our breastwork too much for them," said my
father; "and they are shooting up right over us, so as to try and hit us
that way."

"Oh! Oh! Oh!" came in wild yells of pain from Pomp, as I heard a dull
thud just behind me; and turning sharply, there was the boy dancing
about in his agony, and tugging to free his hand from an arrow which had
fallen and gone right through, pinning it to one of the oars.

"Stop! Don't struggle, boy," cried my father, laying his gun across the
box.

"But um hurt dreffle, massa. Oh, Mass' George, lookye here--lookye
dah."

The boat was drifting now, and turning slowly side on to the shore, when
my father made a sign, and I left my gun lying across the box and crept
into Pomp's place, while my father seized the boy's hand, held it
tightly, detached the arrow with a tug from where it stuck in the oar,
and then as I began to row he pulled Pomp down into the bottom of the
boat, the boy sobbing with the pain.

_Whizz_! An arrow made me duck my head, and I don't know how I looked,
but I felt as if I must have turned pale.

"Pull your right, George; pull your right," said my father, coolly.
"Now, Pomp, my boy, let me look. Come, be a man."

My father took his hand, and the boy jumped and uttered a cry of pain,
but he evidently mastered himself, and rising to his knees, he resigned
himself to my father, but doubled his other fist and shook it in the
direction of the shore as he shouted fiercely--

"Ah, you wait bit, great big coward--great big ugly Injum tief. You
wait bit--Pomp and um fader get hold you, gib you de 'tick. Hab you
flog--hab y