y also descended from their perches to receive the new-comers. The
Gilpins, without hesitation, opened the door, and Craven with a stranger
appeared, just dismounting from their horses, whose foam-covered bits
and reeking backs showed that they had ridden at no slow rate.

"No time for words. If you have room for our poor brutes, take them in;
if not, they must run their chance outside," he said. "Here, we have
brought arms and ammunition. We knew that you would be hard pressed,
and have come to share your fate."

"Come in, come in," said James, leading in the horses, who, trembling
with fatigue, were quiet enough.

The new-comers had brought a rifle, a musket, and two fowling-pieces,
with powder-flasks and bullets. This reinforcement raised the
confidence of the little party in the hut. The blacks, discovering
Craven and his companion, made a rush to intercept them. They sprang in
after the horses; but before the door was closed, a shower of darts and
boomerangs rattled against it, and again a shot was heard, and a bullet
flew by among them. Those inside hurriedly closed the door; but, almost
before the bar could be replaced, the blacks were thundering with their
clubs against it. James had been strongly averse to shed blood, even
the blood of savages endeavouring to destroy him and his companions, yet
there was no longer any other alternative; the blacks must be driven
off, or they would burn down the hut. It became James's duty to take
the command, and to give the word. Loop-holes were speedily cut in the
walls.

"Be ready, friends; pick off the leaders, each of us those more
immediately in front as we stand. Do not throw a shot away. Fire!"

Three of the blacks were seen to fall to the ground, the rest ran back
in disorder, two of them wounded. This gave the defenders of the hut
time to reload and to make some fresh loop-holes. The blacks were again
met by the chief, who was seen urging them to return, though he showed
no inclination to place himself in danger. Craven, seeing the look-out
places in the roof, proposed getting up there.

"I think that I might bring down that fellow if I could get a steady
shot at him," he said, taking up his rifle. "The fellow has
disappeared!" he exclaimed. "I cannot make it out, yet the rest obey
him, for they are coming on again, and with fire-brands, too. We must
beat them, or they will roast us."

The spectacle was indeed appalling. There were from fift