ishermen, who have been too lazy to remove and stow them snugly
away; the oars are therefore hastily caught up and tossed into their
places, the boat is spun round like a top until her head points seaward,
and, with vigorous strokes, the two men send her foaming out along the
narrow river-channel toward the sea.

The pursuers rein up upon the bank, and with one accord draw their
pistols, and open a fusillade upon the flying boat. Fortunately it is a
harmless one; one bullet lodges in the stern transom, a second chips a
shaving off the loom of George's oar, a third passes harmlessly through
the planking of the boat's bow and skims a few yards along the surface
of the water beyond, and the remainder fly wide.

But, after _so long_ and persevering a hunt, these men are not disposed
to sit still tamely and witness the escape of those whom they have sworn
to take back with them, dead or alive, to the plantation; so, after a
few minutes of hurried consultation, three of them dismount, and,
hauling one of the canoes to the bank, enter her and start in chase.

The way in which they handle the paddles and send the light craft
surging down the river in the wake of the boat proves that they are no
novices in the boatman's art, but neither are the two of whom they are
in chase. George and Tom have already nearly forgotten their terrible
fatigue; they are fast recovering their wind; their legs--the members in
which they suffered most severely--are now comparatively at rest, an
entirely new set of muscles is brought into action, and, as they are
perfect masters of the art of handling an oar, they are getting a
surprising rate of speed out of the old boat without very much effort.
In a couple of minutes they are clear of the river's mouth, through the
rollers which are breaking on the miniature bar, and heading fairly out
to sea.

But human endurance has its limits, and after they had been tugging away
for half an hour at the clumsy, ill-made oars, their exertions began to
tell upon them. Their strength began to flag, and the canoe, which they
had hitherto contrived to keep at a distance, began slowly to gain on
them, though how much they could not well tell, as it was by this time
quite dark, and they could only distinguish her as a small, dark,
shapeless blot on the surface of the water, with a tiny luminous ripple
under her bow. They were just beginning to discuss their probabilities
of success, should it come to a hand-to-h