by the heat and thirst. Now we had ample draughts of
cool refreshing water to fly to from time to time, or to bathe our
temples where the shelf was low.

The savages made no attempts at concealing their presence now, and we
could hear a loud buzz of excited voices constantly in our rear, but
still they did not pursue us right home, but made rushes that kept us in
a constant state of excitement and, I may say, dread.

"Do you think they will get tired of this soon, doctor?"

I said, just at daybreak, when I found the doctor looking at me in a
strange and haggard way.

"I can't say, my lad," he whispered back. "We must hope for the best."

Just then Ti-hi came from the front to sign to us to hurry on, and
following him we found that he had hit upon a place where there was some
hope of our being able to hold our own for a time.

It was extremely fortunate, for the coming day would make us an easy
mark, the pale-grey light that was stealing down having resulted in
several arrows coming dangerously near; and though there were equal
advantages for us in the bodies of our enemies becoming easier to see,
we were not eager to destroy life, our object, as I have before said,
being to escape.

We followed Ti-hi, to find that the narrow shelf slowly rose now higher
and higher, till at the end of a couple of hundred yards it gained its
highest point of some five-and-twenty feet above the river; while to add
to the advantage of our position, the rock above the path stretched over
it like the commencement of some Titan's arch, that had been intended to
bridge the stream, one that had either never been finished, or had
crumbled and fallen away.

In support of this last fanciful idea there were plenty of loose rocks
and splinters of stones that had fallen from above, mingled with others
whose rounded shapes showed that they must have been ground together by
the action of water.

I did not think of that at the time, though I had good reason to
understand it later on.

The position was admirable, the ledge widening out considerably; we were
safe from dropping arrows, and we had only to construct a strong
breastwork, some five feet long, to protect us from attack by the enemy.
In fact in five minutes or so we were comparatively safe; in ten
minutes or a quarter of an hour our breastwork was so strengthened that
we began to breathe freely.

By this time it was morning, but instead of its continuing to grow light
down in the