llowing his pointing finger I made out the black bodies of
several savages creeping to posts of vantage from whence they would be
able to shoot.

"Take care," said the doctor sternly, as an arrow nearly grazed my ear.
"If one of those arrows gives ever so slight a wound it may prove fatal,
my lad; don't expose yourself in the least. Ah! the game must begin in
earnest," he said partly under his breath.

As he spoke he took aim at a man who was climbing from rock to rock to
gain the spot from which the other had been dislodged. Then there was a
puff of white smoke, a roar that reverberated amongst the rocks, and the
poor wretch seemed to drop out of sight.

The doctor's face looked tight and drawn as he reloaded, and for a
moment I felt horrified; but then, seeing a great brawny black fellow
raise himself up to draw his bow and shoot at the part where Jack Penny
was crouching, and each time seem to send his arrow more close to my
companion, I felt suddenly as if an angry wave were sweeping over my
spirit, and lay there scowling at the man.

He rose up again, and there was a whizz and a crack that startled me.

"I say," drawled Jack Penny, "mind what you're after. You'll hit some
one directly."

He said this with a strange solemnity of voice, and picking up the arrow
he handed it to one of the blacks.

"That thing went right through my hair, Joe Carstairs," he continued.
"It's making me wild."

I hesitated no longer, but as the great savage rose up once more I took
a quick aim and fired just as he was drawing his bow.

The smoke obscured my sight for a few moments, during which there was a
furious yelling, and then, just as the thin bluish vapour was clearing
off, there was another puff, and an echoing volley dying off in the
distance, for Jack Penny had also fired.

"I don't know whether I hit him," he answered; "but he was climbing up
there like t'other chap was, and I can't see him now."

In the excitement of the fight the terrible dread of injuring a fellow
creature now seemed to have entirely passed away, and I watched one
savage stealing from bush to bush, and from great stone to stone with an
eagerness I could not have believed in till I found an opportunity of
firing at him, just as he too had reached a dangerous place and had sent
his first arrow close to my side.

I fired and missed him, and the savage shouted defiance as my bullet
struck the stones and raised a puff of dust. The next moment he