an paddle,
we can get away from them anyway, so we might as well wait."

And wait we did.

The sea calmed rapidly, so that by the time the foremost canoe had come
within five hundred yards of us we could see them all plainly. Every
one was headed for us. The dugouts, which were of unusual length, were
manned by twenty paddlers, ten to a side. Besides the paddlers there
were twenty-five or more warriors in each boat.

When the leader was a hundred yards from us Dian called our attention
to the fact that several of her crew were Sagoths. That convinced us
that the flotilla was indeed Hooja's. I told Juag to hail them and get
what information he could, while I remained in the bottom of our canoe
as much out of sight as possible. Dian lay down at full length in the
bottom; I did not want them to see and recognize her if they were in
truth Hooja's people.

"Who are you?" shouted Juag, standing up in the boat and making a
megaphone of his palms.

A figure arose in the bow of the leading canoe--a figure that I was
sure I recognized even before he spoke.

"I am Hooja!" cried the man, in answer to Juag.

For some reason he did not recognize his former prisoner and
slave--possibly because he had so many of them.

"I come from the Island of Trees," he continued. "A hundred of my
boats were lost in the great storm and all their crews drowned. Where
is the land? What are you, and what strange thing is that which
flutters from the little tree in the front of your canoe?"

He referred to our sail, flapping idly in the wind.

"We, too, are lost," replied Juag. "We know not where the land is. We
are going back to look for it now."

So saying he commenced to scull the canoe's nose before the wind, while
I made fast the primitive sheets that held our crude sail. We thought
it time to be going.

There wasn't much wind at the time, and the heavy, lumbering dugout was
slow in getting under way. I thought it never would gain any momentum.
And all the while Hooja's canoe was drawing rapidly nearer, propelled
by the strong arms of his twenty paddlers. Of course, their dugout was
much larger than ours, and, consequently, infinitely heavier and more
cumbersome; nevertheless, it was coming along at quite a clip, and ours
was yet but barely moving. Dian and I remained out of sight as much as
possible, for the two craft were now well within bow-shot of one
another, and I knew that Hooja had archers.

Hooja called to Ju