tender body an' soul. Heave ahoy an' let drop that gaff, an' take
me aboard, Levin!"

Still silent and passive as a stone, the youthful figure at the helm did
not seem to breathe, and the cat-boat cut the water like a fish-hawk.

A flash of bright fire lighted up the vessel's side, a loud pistol-shot
rang out, and the sailor's hands loosened from the gunwale and clutched
at the air, and he felt the black night fall on him as if he had pulled
down its ebony columns upon his head.

He knew no more for hours, till he felt himself lying in cold water and
saw the gray morning coming through tree-boughs over his head. He had a
thirsty feeling and pain somewhere, and for a few minutes did not move,
but lay there on his shoulder, holding to something and guessing what it
might be, and where he might be making his bed in this chilly autumn
dawn.

His hand was clutching the a-stern plank of the old scow, and was so
stiff he could not for some time open it. The scow was aground upon a
marshy shore, in which some large trees grew, and were the fringes of a
woods that deepened farther back.

"By smoke!" muttered Jimmy, "if yer ain't hokey-pokey. But I reckon I
ain't dead, nohow."

With this he lifted the other hand, that had been stretched beneath his
head, and was also numb with cramp and cold, and it was full of blood.

"Well," said Jimmy, "that feller did hit me; but, if he'll lend me his
pistol, I'll fire a straighter slug than his'n. I wonder where it is."

Feeling around his head, the captain came to a raw spot, the touch of
which gave him acute pain, and made the blood flow freshly as he
withdrew his hand, and he could just speak the words, "Water, or I'll--"
when he swooned away.

The sun was up and shining cheerily in the tree-tops as Phoebus, who
was its name-bearer, recovered his senses again, and he bathed his face,
still lying down, and tore a piece of his raiment off for a bandage,
and, by the mirror of a still, green pool of water, examined his wound,
which was in the fleshy part of his cheek--a little groove or gutter,
now choked with almost dried blood, where the ball had ploughed a line.
It had probably struck a bone, but had not broken it, and this had
stunned him.

"I was so ugly before that Ellenory wouldn't more than half look at me,"
Jimmy mused, "an' now, I 'spect, she'll never kiss that air cheek."

He then bandaged his cheek roughly, sitting up, and took a survey of the
scenery.

The river wa