tting your
feet."

However, having so recently recovered from a severe illness, I thought
it wiser, when it came to the point, not to do this; so Jacques took my
intended companion with him.

"Here, Master Reuben, you take one bit of candle and I the other," said
Jacques, cutting the piece in the lantern in two.

Reuben and Mike at once plunged into the marsh, and made their way
through the rushes. I heard their voices, although from where I stood I
could not see them. Presently Mike exclaimed--

"Here comes a big one! Howld the light furder back, Masther Reuben,
and, bedad, we'll have him. Sure, though, he's gone off; come a little
furder. There he is now; this time he'll be afther getting caught, sure
enough."

Then the sound of splashing and the crackling of the reeds reached my
ears, when presently Mike cried out,--"Och! murther, but what are these
bastes about? They'll be biting off our noses, and bunging up our eyes!
But we must have the fish, though. Och! murther, murther!"

Reuben's voice joined in chorus, though with varied exclamations.

I ran to a point near the spot which my friends had reached, and there I
saw Mike bending down, holding the net in one hand, while he endeavoured
to beat off with his hat a swarm of mosquitoes which were buzzing
thickly round him. Reuben stood near holding out the candle, and a
second net in his other hand, which prevented him from defending his
face from the venomous bites of his persevering assailants. Still,
though his countenance exhibited the sufferings he was enduring, he
manfully kept his post.

Just then the most fearful shrieks and cries rent the air, sounding like
the war-whoop of a band of savage Indians.

"Och, but the Ridskins are upon us!" cried out Mike. "We must run for
it, Masther Reuben dear. Niver mind the nets, or the fish, or the
mosquito bastes. It's too much for any mortal man to stand, with the
savages into the bargain. Come along as fast as your legs can carry
you; but we will find Masther Roger first. We must not lave him behind
to be scalped; and as to Jacques and Tom Hodges, if they have not taken
care of themselves, it's more than we can do for them."

Mike was rapidly uttering these expressions while, floundering along, he
made his way up to where I was standing. Whether or not Reuben was
aware of the true state of the case I could not tell, but he was
certainly following much more leisurely than might have been expected