.

"To turn and come back was not many moments' work; but he didn't come up
where I expected, and I had to paddle back against stream, but again I
missed him, and he went down with a yell, Mas'r Harry, that's been
buzzing in my ears ever since--wakes me up of a night, it does, and
sends me in a cold perspiration as all the scene comes back again.

"I forgot all about his shooting and knifing me; and, Mas'r Harry, as I
hope to get back safe to old England I did all I could to save him when
he come up again--silent this time! Did I say him? No, it wasn't him,
but a horrible, gashly, bleeding mass of flesh and bone, writhing and
twisting as the little fish hung to it and leaped at it by thousands,
tearing him really to pieces before he once more sank under the stream,
which was all red with blood.

"I paddled here and I paddled there, frantically, but the body didn't
come up again; and then, Mas'r Harry, it seemed to me as if a strong
pair of hands had taken hold of the canoe and were twisting it round and
round, so that the river and the trees on the banks danced before my
eyes, making me that giddy that I fell back and lay, I don't know how
long.

"When I opened my eyes again, Mas'r Harry, I thought I was dying, for
there was a horrible sick feeling on me--one which lasted ever so long--
till, remembering all about what had taken place, I felt that I had only
been fainting; and, raising myself up, I looked on the river for a few
minutes, shuddering the while as I tried to leave off thinking about the
horrors in it; but try hard as I would, I couldn't help looking--the
place having a sort of way for me as if it was pulling me towards it--
and I seemed to see all that going on again, though, perhaps, I'd
floated down a good mile since it happened.

"At last I dragged my eyes from the water and they fell upon the
packages, and they made me think of you, Mas'r Harry; and, in the hope
that you were a long way on ahead, I took up a paddle--thinking, too, at
the same time, that if you was alive, as soon as you had got Miss Lilla
safe you would come back for me."

I did not speak--I could not just then; for in a flood the recollection
of the past came upon me, and taking Tom's hands in mine, for a good ten
minutes I sat without speaking.

"Well, Mas'r Harry," continued Tom--but speaking now in a thick, husky
voice--"I took up the paddle and then I dropped it again, I was that
weak, faint, and in pain; and it seemed to