down to soak me.

_Whizz_--_thud_--_whizz_--_whizz_, and an angry ejaculation from my
father; I did not know why, nor yet why Pomp uttered a shrill
ejaculation, for I was pulling with all my might like one in a dream. I
felt once as if I should like to look back and see how near we were to
the point that I knew must be close at hand; but everything was getting
dark, and a horrible sensation of sickness was coming on. Then the
sharp report of my father's piece made me start and pull harder, as I
thought, and I tried to look toward the shore, where a wild yelling had
arisen; but Pomp's words uttered close to me took my attention, and in a
dreamy way I supposed that another Indian had been killed.

Then the boy spoke again in a low whimpering way--

"Massa--massa--look at de blood. Oh, Mass' George! Mass' George!"

CHAPTER THIRTY TWO.

"Better, my lad?"

I did not answer, but looked in my father's face, wondering what was the
matter--why I felt so deathly sick, as I lay back feeling water splashed
in my face, and seeing a black hand going and coming from somewhere at
my side.

"Come: try and hold up," said my father.

"Yes," I said. "What's the matter?"

"Nothing very serious for you, my lad. We have been playing at soldiers
in earnest, that's all, and you have been wounded."

"I, father--I? Ah yes, I remember," I said, essaying to sit up. "But I
did try hard to bear it."

"I know--I know, my lad. I didn't know you were hurt like that."

"But--but the Indians?" I said, struggling up, and then catching at my
father's hand, for I felt a burning pain run through my leg, and the
sick sensation returned.

"We have left them behind," he said, "and are out of their reach for the
present. Now sit still, and the faintness will go off. I must go to
the other boat."

I looked sharply round, and found that the wooded point was far behind,
and also that we were well out of our stream, and floating steadily down
the big river toward the settlement, whose flagstaff and houses stood
out in the sunshine on our left about a mile away. I saw too that a
rope had been made fast to the end of the other boat, and that we were
being towed, but by whom, or what was going on there, I could not see
for the great bundle in the white sheet which filled up the stern, and
was still bristling with arrows.

"Hold hard!" shouted my father, and our boat began to glide alongside of
the other. "Can you sit up, my lad?"