ensued, for Fergus McKay had much of the bone, muscle, and
sinew, that is characteristic of his race, but a blow from an unseen
weapon stunned him, and when his senses returned he found himself bound
hand and foot lying in the bottom of a canoe. He could tell from its
motion, that it was descending the river.

Meanwhile Dan Davidson, under the impression that his comrade was also
seeking safety in the bush, did his best to advance in circumstances of
which he had never yet had experience, for, if the night was dark on the
open bosom of the river, it presented the blackness of Erebus in the
forest. Dan literally could not see an inch in advance of his own nose.
If he held up his hand before his face it was absolutely invisible.

In the haste of the first rush he had crashed through a mass of small
shrubbery with which the bank of the stream was lined. Then on passing
through that he tumbled head over heels into a hollow, and narrowly
missed breaking his gun. Beyond that he was arrested by a tree with
such violence that he fell and lay for a minute or two, half-stunned.
While lying thus, experience began to teach him, and common sense to
have fair-play.

"A little more of this," he thought, "and I'm a dead man. Besides, if
it is difficult for me to traverse the forest in the dark, it is equally
difficult for the savages. My plan is to feel my way step by step, with
caution. That will be the quietest way, too, as well as the quickest.
You're an excited fool, Dan!"

When a man begins to think, and call himself a fool, there is some hope
of him. Gathering himself up, and feeling his gun all over carefully,
to make sure that it had not been broken, he continued to advance with
excessive caution, and, in consequence, was ere long a considerable
distance from the banks of the river, though, of course, he had but a
hazy idea as to what part of the country he had attained, or whither he
was tending.

As the first excitement of flight passed away, Dan began to feel uneasy
prickings of conscience at having so hastily sought safety for himself,
though, upon reflection, he could not accuse himself of having deserted
his comrades. Okematan and the boys, he had good reason to believe--at
least to hope--had succeeded in evading the foe, and Fergus he supposed
had landed with himself, and was even at that moment making good his
escape into the forest. To find him, in the circumstances, he knew to
be impossible, and to sho