ised himself up a little higher and stared anxiously
into the thick mass of white fog. He could make out nothing but a little
patch of water and a few ghostly tree trunks near by. Even the stern of
the boat was half hidden by the fog.

"Wa'al," thought the shiftless one philosophically, "ef it's hard fur me
to find anything it'll be hard fur anything to find us."

But his troubled mind would not be quiet. Philosophy was not a sufficient
reply to the warning of the sixth sense, and, leaning far over the edge of
the boat, he listened with ears long trained to every sound of the
wilderness. He heard only the stray murmur of the wind among the
leaves--and was that a ripple in the water? He strained his ears and
decided that it was either a ripple or the splash of a fish, and he sank
back again in his seat.

Although he had resumed his old position, the shiftless one was not
satisfied. The feeling of apprehension, like a mysterious mental signal,
was not effaced. That thick, whitish fog was surcharged with an alien
quality, and slowly he raised himself up once more. Hark! was it the
ripple again? He rose half to his feet, and instantly his eye caught a
glimpse of something brown upon the edge of the boat. It was a human hand,
the brown, powerful hand of a savage.

The glance of Shif'less Sol followed the hand and saw a brown face
emerging from the water and fog. Quick as a flash he fired. There was a
terrible, unearthly cry, the hand slipped from the boat and the head sank
from view.

"Up! up! boys!" cried Sol in thunderous tones. "We're attacked by swimmin'
savages!"

He snatched up one of the double-barreled pistols and fired at another
head on the water. The others were awake in an instant and rose up, rifles
in hand. But they saw only a splash of blood on the stream that was gone
in a moment, then the thick, whitish fog closed in again, and after that
silence! But they knew Sol too well to doubt him, and the momentary red
splash would have converted even the ignorant.

"Lie low!" exclaimed Henry. "Everybody down behind the sides of the boat!
They may fire at any time!"

The boat was built of thick timber, through which no bullet of that time
could go, and they crouched down, merely peeping over the edges and
presenting scarcely any target. They had their own rifles and the extra
fowling pieces and pistols were made ready, also.

But nothing came from the great pall of whitish fog, and the silence was
chilly an