t made me snatch it away, for I thought he was going to
feel my pulse. I fancied for the moment that it must be to see whether
I was nervous, and the blood flushed to my cheeks now, and made me look
defiant.

"Why, Joe, my lad, what is it?" he said quietly. "Won't you shake
hands?"

"Oh! yes," I cried, placing mine in his, and he gave it a long, firm
grip.

"I ought," he said, after a pause, "to have said more about the
troubles, like this one, which I might have known would arise, when we
arranged to start; but somehow I had a sort of hope that we might make a
peaceful journey, and not be called upon to shed blood. Joe, my lad, we
shall have to fight for our lives."

"And shoot down these people?" I said huskily.

"If we do not, they will shoot us. Poor wretches, they probably do not
know the power of our guns. We must give them the small shot first, and
we may scare them off. Don't you fire, my lad; leave it to me."

I nodded my head, and then our attention was taken up by the arrows that
kept flying in, with such good aim that if we had exposed ourselves in
the least the chances are that we should have been hit.

The doctor was on one side of me, Jack Penny on the other, and my tall
young friend I noticed had been laying some cartridges very methodically
close to his hand, ready for action it seemed to me; but he had not
spoken much, only looked very solemn as he lay upon his chest, kicking
his legs up and sawing them slowly to and fro.

"Are we going to have to fight, Joe Carstairs?" he whispered.

"I'm afraid so," I replied.

"Oh!"

That was all for a few minutes, during which time the arrows kept coming
in and striking the roof as before, to fall there with a tinkling sound,
and be collected carefully by Ti-hi and his companions, all of whom
watched us with glowing eyes, waiting apparently for the order to be
given when they might reply to the shots of the enemy.

"I say, Joe Carstairs," said Jack, giving me a touch with his long arm.

"Yes; what is it?" I said peevishly, for his questions seemed to be a
nuisance.

"I don't look horribly frightened, do I?"

"No," I said; "you look cool enough. Why?"

"Because I feel in a horrid stew, just as I did when a lot of the black
fellows carried me off. I was a little one then."

"Were you ever a little one, Jack!" I said wonderingly.

"Why, of course I was--a very little one. You don't suppose I was born
with long legs like a colt, do yo