ched the
bottom; still they had some way to go. The voices of their pursuers
grew louder and louder. They fancied that they heard some Spaniards
among them, uttering their usual horrid oaths. They knew that those
wretches were far more barbarous than their black brethren. With the
negroes they might have had some chance of escape, with the Spanish
pirates none. On they went. They dared not look round. There was a
sharp report of a pistol--a bullet flew by them. Another and another
followed. Happily, as their pursuers were running, they could not take
steady aim; still they were getting dreadfully near. Another enemy was
added to the pursuers. The midshipmen heard the baying of a bloodhound.
There could be no doubt about the sound. The brute was still at a
distance though; probably let loose by some of the Spaniards not roused
till late to join in the chase. Murray and Adair remembered their
pistols, and it was a satisfaction to feel that they might possibly
shoot him before they were torn to pieces. Not that the task would
prove an easy one though. Just then appeared before them through the
dark foliage a sheet of silvery hue; it was the river. The sight nerved
their limbs afresh; they had need of something to encourage them.
Scarcely thirty yards behind them came the savage rabble. The fugitives
had difficulty to keep ahead of them. Fierce were the shouts of blacks
and Spaniards, and more savage was the baying of the bloodhound. Paddy,
who brought up the rear, could scarcely help shrieking out, for he felt
the brute close at his heels. He cared much more for it than he did for
the bullets. He was certain that in another moment the animal would
have hold of his legs, when up there started, just in front of the
fugitives, honest Dick Needham and two seamen, well-armed with muskets
and cutlasses. Dick, springing forward, made a cut at the savage brute,
which almost severed its head from its body, and then shouted, "Back,
back, you villains, or we'll blow you into the sky!" and then, in
another tone, he cried out, "Run for the boat, young gentlemen, we'll
cover your retreat." No one required to be told this a second time, and
Needham and the seamen, facing the crowd of blacks, and firing as they
retreated, kept the enemy completely at bay till the midshipmen and
Wasser had reached the boat. They were not long in jumping in after
them, and, shoving off, away they pulled, shouting with delight at their