een by
Forsetta, for, as soon as light was clear enough, they saw two tramps
going up the Somme on the opposite bank. Under these conditions, how
were they to land?

Shortly afterwards, they saw that their retreat was discovered and
that the enemy was profiting by their hesitation. On the same bank as
themselves, some five hundred yards down-stream, appeared the barrel
of a rifle. Up-stream an identical menace confronted them.

"Forsetta and Mazzani," declared Dolores. "We are cut off right and
left."

"But there's nobody in front of us."

"Yes, the rest of the tramps."

"I don't see them."

"They are there, believe me, in hiding and well sheltered."

"Let's rush at them and get by!"

"To do that, we should have to cover a bare patch under the cross-fire
of Mazzani and Forsetta. They are good shots. They won't miss us."

"Then what?"

"Well, let's defend ourselves here."

It was good advice. The cargo of marble blocks, piled
higgledy-piggledy like a child's building-bricks, formed a thorough
citadel. Dolores and Simon climbed it and at the top selected a fort,
protected on all sides, from which they could see the slightest
movements of their enemies.

"They're coming," Dolores declared, after an attentive scrutiny.

The river had deposited along the banks trunks of trees and enormous
roots, drifting it was impossible to say whence, which Forsetta and
Mazzani were using to cover their approach. Moreover, at each rush
forward they protected themselves with broad planks which they carried
with them. And Dolores called Simon's attention to the fact that more
things were moving across the bare plain; more shields improvised of
all sorts of stray materials: coils of rope, broken parts of boats,
fragments of pontoons and pieces of boilerplate. All these things were
creeping imperceptibly, with the sure, heavy pace of tortoises making
for the same goal, along the radius that led to the centre. And the
centre was the fortress. The tramps were investing it under the orders
of Mazzani and Forsetta. From time to time a limb or a head appeared
in sight.

"Ah!" said Simon, in a voice filled with rage. "If only I had a few
bullets, wouldn't I stop this inroad of wood-lice!"

Dolores had made a display of the two useless rifles, in the hope that
the threatening aspect would intimidate the enemy. But the confidence
of the attackers increased with the inactivity of the besieged. It was
even possible that the two Indi