y ob cover for Johnnie, but what
about massa?" But Dick brushed aside his question with one word, and
proceeded to fix the bar between his knees, as he had done with the
wooden tiller.

"Let 'em shoot at it again," he said, "and I guess the bullet won't do
much harm. In any case it was a fluke, and not a bad attempt to pot me.
Hah! That got one fellow. I shall have to play with these men."

As he ran the launch across towards the far bank, slanting her down
stream all the while, he had seen that the fleet of canoes was now
spread out across the river, and though there were fewer of their boats
on the far side, and a narrow opening still remained there, yet the path
to the sea was barred. He therefore steered for the far side. But a
plan to get free was forming in his brain, and he watched for a chance
to carry it out, his eye riveted on the two war canoes.

"It's those fellows I want to dodge," he said. "I wonder how we should
fare if we ran into one of them."

He was thinking of charging one, and measured the size of the stout
launch against that of each one of the native craft.

"We're about the same length," he said, "and as to weight it's a
toss-up. She's crammed with men, and we've engines and a boiler aboard.
There's nothing in it. All depends on how we hit her. All right!"

There was something ominous in those last two words. They meant much,
and the quiet way in which the helmsman of the launch looked round, the
set expression of his face, showed that he meant to choose well and make
the most of his opportunities.

"We've steam to drive us, and plenty of it," he thought. "That gives us
an advantage."

Once more he put up his rifle, and for three or four minutes peppered
the enemy. But on this occasion he directed his shots to the boats at
the far side of the river, now very close at hand.

On the part of the enemy there had been a wild endeavour to close in as
the launch, with her tiller shot away, ran down towards the near bank,
and this rush had resulted in some of the craft being upset. Then, as
Dick fitted the iron bar and steered away again, a still madder rush was
made for the far side. And in this the two war canoes were hardly as
successful as they had been. They were too much hampered by their
comrades, and so it happened that they were separated widely from one
another, one only being well on its way across the stream. The second
had barely reached the middle, and as he fired