ing
him back with stones. One of the missiles, better aimed than the rest,
brought the black hunter a sounding thump on his bear-skin war-cap,
where it still stuck fast and firm to his head, never to quit that place
but with the scalp it covered, or with victory. The blow, however, hurt
him no more than had his woolen knob been a messy pine-knot; though it
did send him with a quick dive to the bottom of the river, that he might
come up again at a more respectful distance.

Now, the Fighting Nigger, as we have seen, had calculated on finding,
not water, but good level ground at the bottom of the hill, where, in
his superior skill as a wrestler, he might regain the advantage he had
lost by shifting the struggle to the steep hill-side; but he was too
quick and expedient, and of too sturdy a spirit to be completely
staggered by any blow of outrageous fortune, even though it should be
backhanded and ever so unexpected. So finding that the tide of battle
was setting strong and stiff against him in the straits to which he had
brought himself, he held a short council of war with Burlman Reynolds,
his right-hand man, and promptly determined upon a new course of action.
In the first place, they must quit them of an element which offered so
few facilities for the dodging and avoiding of well-aimed missiles. This
accomplished, they must then bespeed them to the top of the hill again,
where two loaded rifles yet remained, in whose leaden bullets lay, as
they trusted, the golden chance of victory.

Just below the point where the two giants had made their involuntary
dive, the river-bank was crowned with a small cane-brake, whose roots,
striking through its overleaning edge, formed a ragged, yellow,
rope-like fringe, that hung down almost to the surface of the water. In
these roots, Burl saw a means of extricating himself from his present
predicament, and of escaping from the very enemy this self-same brake
had aided him in coming at the hour before. Accordingly, making a deep
dive, that under cover of the water he might unanticipated take the
first step in his new course of action, he came up a few moments after
directly under the brake, with an upward shoot that brought him within
reach of the rooty fringe. Grasping a bunch, he began drawing himself
up, hand over hand, at the same time widely gathering in the ropy mass
with his knees, not only to expedite his climbing and reenforce his
arms, but to lessen the strain on the smaller