ance and defend it as we best might. Ben with the long musket, and
I with a brand, which I still clutched, but which no longer blazed, and
could only be used as a bludgeon. Should these weapons fail, we would
have to take out our knives, and make the best fight we could; but we
knew that if the baboons once got inside, so as to surround us, we
should not have long to live.

The screaming brutes had all come up, and we could see them plainly
under the blaze of the faggots. They covered the whole space between
the trunk of the tree and the fire; and as near as we could estimate
their number, there were about three score of them. They danced madly
about, uttering loud wails--as if lamenting their fallen comrades--and
then breaking out into more clamorous cries, that expressed rage and the
desire for vengeance. They had not yet made their rush for the
entrance; but there was a large crowd of them standing, or rather
leaping about in front of it, that seemingly only waited for some signal
to spring forward.

We stood in anxious expectation--holding our weapons ready to dash them
back. We knew we could do nothing more than "job" them; and we were
apprehensive about the result. Despite all our efforts, some of them
might get past us; and then we should be assailed in the rear, and of
course vanquished and destroyed.

"If we only could get at the door?" said I, looking towards the slab,
which could be seen where it lay outside.

"'Tan't possible," answered Ben, "the filthy beasts are all around it--
they'd pull us to pieces if we only showed nose outside. Dash my
buttons. Will! if I han't got a plan--we'll do without the door--you
keep 'em back while I stop the gap. Here take the gun--its better'n
that stick--look sharp, lad!--knock 'em back--that's the way!"

And in this manner Ben continued to direct me, long after he had
delivered the musket into my hands. I noticed that he had glided behind
me, but for what purpose I could not guess; but, indeed, I had no time
for guessing, as the baboons were now beyond all doubt resolved to force
an entrance, and it required all my strength and activity to keep them
back with the muzzle of the piece. One after another sprang up on the
step of the narrow doorway, and one after another was sent rolling back
again, by blows that I gave with all the force I could put into my arms;
and these blows I was compelled to repeat as rapidly, as the strokes of
a blacksmith's hammer in