drawn some fifty yards ahead of Hooja--there had been times when we
were scarce ten yards in advance-and were feeling considerably safer
from capture. Hooja's men, working in relays, were commencing to show
the effects of the strain under which they had been forced to work
without food or water, and I think their weakening aided us almost as
much as the slight freshening of the wind.

Hooja must have commenced to realize that he was going to lose us, for
he again gave orders that we be fired upon. Volley after volley of
arrows struck about us. The distance was so great by this time that
most of the arrows fell short, while those that reached us were
sufficiently spent to allow us to ward them off with our paddles.
However, it was a most exciting ordeal.

Hooja stood in the bow of his boat, alternately urging his men to
greater speed and shouting epithets at me. But we continued to draw
away from him. At last the wind rose to a fair gale, and we simply
raced away from our pursuers as if they were standing still. Juag was
so tickled that he forgot all about his hunger and thirst. I think
that he had never been entirely reconciled to the heathenish invention
which I called a sail, and that down in the bottom of his heart he
believed that the paddlers would eventually overhaul us; but now he
couldn't praise it enough.

We had a strong gale for a considerable time, and eventually dropped
Hooja's fleet so far astern that we could no longer discern them. And
then--ah, I shall never forget that moment--Dian sprang to her feet
with a cry of "Land!"

Sure enough, dead ahead, a long, low coast stretched across our bow.
It was still a long way off, and we couldn't make out whether it was
island or mainland; but at least it was land. If ever shipwrecked
mariners were grateful, we were then. Raja and Ranee were commencing
to suffer for lack of food, and I could swear that the latter often
cast hungry glances upon us, though I am equally sure that no such
hideous thoughts ever entered the head of her mate. We watched them
both most closely, however. Once while stroking Ranee I managed to get
a rope around her neck and make her fast to the side of the boat. Then
I felt a bit safer for Dian. It was pretty close quarters in that
little dugout for three human beings and two practically wild,
man-eating dogs; but we had to make the best of it, since I would not
listen to Juag's suggestion that we kill and eat Raja and Ran