ut upon our ill-starred boat
expedition up the river, and I made play as best I could with these,
bowling over a savage with each of my pistols and then whipping out my
cutlass. For a time I did pretty well, I and those on either side of me
not only holding our ground but actually beginning to force the enemy
back; but at length a huge savage loomed up before me with his war-club
raised to strike. My only chance seemed to be to get in a cut or a
thrust before the blow could fall, and I accordingly lunged out at his
great brawny chest. But the fellow was keen-eyed and active as a cat;
he sprang to one side, avoiding my thrust, and at the same instant
brought down his club upon my blade with a force that shattered the
latter like glass and made my arm tingle to such an extent that for the
moment at least I was powerless in the right arm. Then, quick as
thought, he swung up the huge club again, with the evident determination
to brain me. Disarmed and defenceless, I did the on'y thing that was
possible, which was to spring at his great throat and grip it with my
left hand, pressing my thumb hard upon his wind-pipe. But I was like a
child in his hands; he shook me off with scarcely an effort; and as I
went reeling backward I saw his club come sweeping down straight for the
top of my head. At that precise instant something seemed to flash dully
before my eyes in a momentary gleam of starlight, a sharp _tchick_ came
to my ears, a few spots of what felt like hot rain spattered in my face,
and the great savage, his knees doubling beneath him, reeled backward
with a horrible groan and crashed to the sand, with Cupid's axe
quivering in his brain, while the club, flying from his relaxed grasp,
caught me on the left forearm, which I had instinctively flung up to
defend myself, snapping the bone like a carrot, and then whirling over
and catching me a blow upon the head that stretched me senseless. But
before I fell I had become conscious that through the distracting noises
of the fight that raged around me I could hear the sound of renewed
firing spluttering out from the direction of the boats.

When my senses returned to me the day was apparently some three or four
hours old, for the shadows of certain objects upon which my eyes
happened to fall as I first opened them were, if anything, a trifle
shorter than the objects themselves, which was a sure indication that
the sun stood high in the heavens. I was lying, with a number