one of the blacks was hit, as we knew by the cry of
pain he uttered.

"If that's your game, my lads, you shall have enough of it," exclaimed
Tom, turning round and firing a shot into the midst of the savages. Who
was struck we could not tell, but they all immediately stopped, though
they continued shouting as before. Tom reloading, we ran on.

"The next time we must both of us stop and fire," he said.

For several minutes we began to hope that the savages had given up the
pursuit, but as we could not long keep up the pace at which we were
going, we began to slacken our speed. They again overtook us, and
shooting a flight of arrows, Tom was hit in the leg, and another black
man in the back.

"It's your own fault," cried Tom, facing about, when we both fired with
evident effect, for we could see the savages rushing back instead of
pursuing, well knowing that we had two more muskets amongst us. In
consequence of having so frequently gone out on hunting excursions, we
all knew the road well. In some places it was rather winding, and we
were afraid that the blacks, by cutting off angles, might get on our
flanks. However, that could not be helped, and we kept our eyes open to
be ready for them at any moment they might appear. Fortunately, Tom's
was merely a flesh wound, and it did not occur to us that the arrow was
poisoned. The wound bled pretty freely, but there was no time to stop
and bind it up. Our pursuers seemed to think that they might have to
pay too dearly for the attempt to recover us, and we were now allowed to
go on without molestation, we could still hear them, however, shouting
in our rear. This only served to make us increase our speed, until our
poor slave companions, who well knew that they would in all probability
be put to death if we were overtaken--though the people might be afraid
to kill us--were on the point of sinking from fatigue. At last, finding
that Tom appeared to be suffering from loss of blood, we shouted to
Charley and Harry to halt. They were glad enough to do so, both of them
coming to assist me in binding up Tom's wound.

"I don't think it's anything, and it doesn't hurt me much, if I can keep
moving I don't mind," remarked Tom, as we finished the operation.

As we were all very tired with our run, which must have carried us six
or seven miles, we were proposing to rest, when again we heard the cries
in our rear. This made us jump to our feet and push on as before. We