rd and swam back toward land, while we along the
rail of the Sea Spell sent broadside after broadside of rockets after
them.

We saw them splash through the shoal water, gain the land, and disappear
beyond the illumination of the fires before all our skyrockets were used
up.

"Avast firin'!" roared Captain Tugg, and Pedro, the mate, repeated the
order in Spanish. "Now out with a boat, Pedro, and save those canoes.
They'll come in handy for our use."

No matter what the situation might be, the Yankee could not lose sight
of the main chance. We gathered in those canoes and then awaited
daylight before we made any further move. We found then that the savages
had totally disappeared.

"We can warp her off and I doubt if she's damaged at all," declared
Captain Tugg. "But I'm too worried about the Professor to begin that
now. I'm going to leave Pedro here and we'll take some of the boys and
sail up to headquarters and see what's happened there. You can bring
your hardware, Mr. Webb. We may have need of it after all, for if
they've troubled the Professor, I swanny I'll shoot some of the
long-legged rascals!"

What I had read of white men in wild countries had led me to believe
that they usually shot the savages first and inquired into their
intentions afterward. But Captain Tugg assured me that in the fifteen
years he had been in this country he had never been obliged to more than
string a few savages up by their thumbs and ropes-end them!

"They've been ugly at times--not my boys around here, but some of the
far, up-country tribes--and I've been obliged to show them things. I'm
kind of a wonder-worker, I be. Them scamps that waylaid us last night
will scatter the news of that fireworks show throughout ten townships,
and don't you forgit it. Jest because Adoniram Tugg can show 'em
something new ev'ry time is what's kept his head on his shoulders for
fifteen years."

"Goodness! they're not head-hunters?" said I.

"No. But they'd take a white man's head and sell it to tribes farther
north that _do_ prize sech trophies. Oh, this ain't no country for
tenderfoots, son. There ain't no tract in the back-end of India, or the
middle of Africa, that's as barbarous as a good wide streak of South
America yet."

And I could believe that later when, after sailing some miles up the
inlet, we came to the burned ruins of a collection of huts and sheds.
This was Tugg's headquarters, and his partner, Professor Vose, the man I
had co