ached our ears. We at once hauled in our lines, got up our
anchor, and pulled away as hard as we could up the river.

"What can be the matter?" I asked.

"I suppose they wish to remind us that it is supper-time, and so fired
the shot to call us back," answered Burton.

"I hope that no strange blacks have come to the camp, or that those bad
men whom we met the other day have not returned," said Harry.

"It may be; but we'll soon show them that we're not going to stand any
of their tricks," observed Burton.

This last suggestion of Harry made me feel very anxious, as I had often
heard of the atrocities of which bushrangers had been guilty.

As we neared the camp we could see no one. Just as we pulled up to the
landing-place, however, we heard a voice cry out,--"Help! help!--bear a
hand, or they'll be away." We eagerly leaped on shore, when the
spectacle which met our eyes made us very anxious. One of our men lay
on the ground, apparently dead; and not far off was the other, bound to
the trunk of a tree so that he could move neither hands nor feet.
"There! there!" he cried. "Stop them!"

Too anxious about my mother and Edith and Pierce to attend to him, or to
understand clearly what he said, I rushed to the door of our cottage.
It was closed. I knocked loudly. "Mother! mother!--let me in; we've
come to your assistance," I exclaimed. She did not reply; but I heard
some one moving, and presently the door opened and Dicky Popo appeared.

"O massa! so glad you come, or dey murder us all," he exclaimed.

"But my mother--where is she?" I asked.

"She in her room, I tink; but no speakee," answered Popo.

"Mother! mother!--where are you?" I cried out.

The door of her room was also closed; but rushing against it, with the
aid of Dicky I burst it open. My mother lay on the ground. A horrible
feeling came over me,--I thought she was shot. On bending down I could
discover no wound, and I found that she still breathed, so I trusted
that she had only fainted. I sprinkled her face with water, and she
shortly after heaved a sigh and opened her eyes. On seeing me she
revived, and with Popo's assistance I lifted her up and placed her in a
chair.

"Is it a hideous dream?" she asked; "or have the bushrangers really been
here? And where are Edith and Pierce?"

"There is nothing now to be alarmed about, mother," I answered. "The
bushrangers have gone away, and Edith and Pierce are probably hiding
somewhere."