_ not to speak so loud," retorted the boy.

"Is the dark 'un there?" inquired Bumpus.

"What d'ye say?"

"The dark 'un; the lump o' charcoal, you know."

"Oh! she's all safe," replied Corrie, "I only hope she won't haul the
clothes right off my body; she grips at my waistband like a--"

Here he was cut short by Keona, who gave utterance to a low dismal wail
that caused the blood and marrow of all three to freeze up, and their
hearts for a moment to leap into their throats and all but choke them.

"Poopy's gone," gasped Corrie, after a few seconds had elapsed.

There was no doubt of the fact, for, besides the relief experienced by
the boy, from the relaxing of her grip on his waistband the moment the
wail was heard, the sound of the girl's footsteps as she flew back
towards the entrance of the cave was distinctly heard.

Keona waited a minute or two to ascertain the exact position of his
enemies, then he repeated the wail and swelled it gradually out into a
fiendish yell that awoke all the echoes of the place. At the same time,
guessing his aim as well as he could, he threw a spear and discharged a
shower of stones at the spot where he supposed they stood.

There is no understanding the strange workings of the human mind! The
very thing that most people would have expected to strike terror to the
heart of Bumpus, was that which infused courage into his soul. The
frightful tones of the savage's voice in such a place did indeed almost
prostrate the superstitious spirit of the seaman, but when he heard the
spear whiz past within an inch of his ear, and received a large stone
full on his chest, and several small ones on other parts of his person,
that instant his strength returned to him, like that of Samson, when the
Philistines attempted to fall upon him. His curiously philosophical
mind at once leaped to the conclusion that, although ghosts could yell,
and look, and vanish, they could not throw spears or fling stones, and
that, therefore, the man they were in search of was actually close
beside them.

Acting on this belief, with immense subtlety Bumpus uttered a cry of
feigned terror, and fled, followed by the panting Corrie, who uttered a
scream of real terror at what he supposed must be the veritable ghost of
the place.

But before he had run fifty yards, John Bumpus suddenly came to a dead
halt; seized Corrie by the collar, dragged him down behind a rock, and
laid his large hand upon his mouth, as being