t not assailed by the Indians; for what reason I could not tell, as
they might have got in with little more difficulty than we had found in
getting out. The triumphant yells of the Indians and the shrieks of the
hapless garrison sounding in our ears, showed us too plainly what would
have been the consequence of delay. We rushed down to the
landing-place, and reached it just at the moment when the terrified crew
of the bongo were shoving off, intending to leave us to our fate. Tim,
springing forward, seized the gunwale of the boat and hauled her back,
tumbling me in with an energy which almost sent me over on the other
side.

"Jump in, Masther Denis, jump in; here come a whole host of Indians," he
exclaimed, "and they'll be after scalping every mother's son of us if we
stop a moment longer."

My uncle sprang into the boat, and Tim, following, was giving her a
shove off, when, as I gazed through the darkness, I saw a number of
figures brandishing their tomahawks, and rushing towards us. In front
of them came a person evidently flying for his life.

"Stop, my friends, stop," he cried out, "or the fellows at my heels will
have me scalped!"

I recognised the voice of Dr Stutterheim. He sprang after us; but his
foot failing to reach the boat, heavily laden as he was with his gun and
various articles, he fell into the water. Tim, however, leant over the
bows and caught his hand before he sank: and my uncle and I assisting,
we hauled him with all his traps on board, while the crew were paddling
with might and main to escape from his pursuers, who in another minute
would have been up with us. The doctor was too much exhausted to speak,
and threw himself down in the bottom of the boat.

Before the Indians had time to stop and draw their bows, we were some
distance from the shore; but that another minute's delay would have been
fatal, was proved by the flight of arrows which followed us. Our black,
brown, and swarthy rowers, however, did not cease their exertions till
we had got far enough off to be invisible from the shore.

My uncle now gave the crew orders to cease paddling, that he might judge
from the sounds what was taking place in the fort. Musketry shots were
still heard, and the roar from several heavy guns proved that the
garrison were still holding out in some part of the fort--the war-whoops
of the Indians, which continually rent the air, giving us hopes that
though fighting desperately they had not succ