ess.

I was glad to see that the natives had assimilated the advice I had
endeavoured, somewhat laboriously, to impart to them, to shoot singly at
a selected mark, thus economising arrows, and promoting good shooting.
They were adopting those tactics now, and the soundness of them was
demonstrated by the fact that no less than five of the apes were put
_hors de combat_ before the feet of any of them touched bottom and they
started to wade ashore. Then, indeed, as some half-dozen of the huge
creatures upreared themselves simultaneously, revealing the whole of
their bodies above the hips, the blacks betrayed signs of panic, a whole
flight of arrows greeting the brutes. But if that indiscriminate
discharge was indeed the result of panic it was nevertheless thoroughly
effective, for every one of the monsters went down, either dead or too
desperately wounded to be capable of further effort. The fate of their
comrades, however, seemed in no wise to dismay or act as a deterrent to
the survivors, who, five in number, pressed resolutely on and, finding
bottom, rose in quick succession to their feet and proceeded to scramble
ashore, actually passing between the bodies of their dead and dying
companions, and noticing them only to thrust them roughly aside in their
eagerness to get to grips with their enemies. But the latter were quite
ready for them. The success of Bowata and his fellow archers, thus far,
had inspired them with such confidence in themselves and their weapons
that I believe not a man of them would have turned tail so long as a
single arrow remained to them, and as the surviving apes advanced they
were met by such a withering flight of arrows that not one of them lived
actually to emerge from the water; and then, with yells of triumph, the
victors rushed into the water and gave the _coup de grace_ to such of
the apes as betrayed any signs of lingering life.

"Let draw the fore-sheet, Billy," said I. "We must go ashore and
congratulate our friends upon their victory."

As the boat grounded on the beach I saw that several of the natives were
still in the water, busily engaged in retrieving arrows from the bodies
of their victims; but I had a shrewd suspicion that many of the arrows
shot had been hopelessly lost; and the suspicion suggested an idea upon
which I acted later on. But for the moment my attention was fully
occupied by Bowata and his people, who crowded round us, all talking at
once, some of them ex