y saw something a little distance down the stream, that
told him a fire had been started. Rapidly it grew in volume, until the
entire vicinity was brilliantly illuminated; and he could easily see
the two squatters moving back and forth, piling brush on the flames.

Of course Phil understood that this was a signal fire. These men,
searching all along the river for the mysterious craft that was coming
down toward the settlement from the hostile country above, had
doubtless arranged to call their fellows to the spot in case they made
a discovery.

"It means the coming of the whole bunch, don't it, Tony?" he asked, as
he saw the flames shooting upward, so that the light might easily have
been seen a mile or more away.

"That so, Phil," replied the other, moodily. "I 'spect this same, yuh
know. On'y hope McGee, he be with alluns."

Tony was certainly nervous, which was a queer thing; for ordinarily the
swamp boy seemed to be as cool and self-possessed as an Indian brave,
who thought it a blur on his manhood to display emotion in the face of
his enemies.

Some time passed. The fire was kept burning, though not quite so
riotously as in the beginning. Evidently the two men believed that
long ere this its reflected light on the clouds overhead must have been
seen at the village; and doubtless the entire male population was even
now on the way thither, following some strip of dry land that was well
known to them.

"There, look, I can count four!" said Phil, with thrilling emphasis.

"Now six!" was the quick response of Tony.

Sure enough, the recruits were arriving very fast. Phil could see them
come out of the gloom of the forest, and into the circle of light cast
by the fire. All were men, and even at that distance he could mark the
fact that they appeared to be of unusual height. But then the people
up-river, who hated and feared the shingle-makers of the swamps, had
told him they were giants, strapping fellows all.

"Oh! that must be McGee!"

This broke involuntarily from the lips of Phil as he saw a man of even
greater stature than any of the others, stride out of the woods, and
immediately beckon for the rest to gather around him.

"Yep, it is him!" breathed Tony, who also had his eyes glued on that
tall, commanding figure, as though fascinated by its presence, even
though he had been familiar with the same from infancy.

Phil was conscious of a queer sensation as he for the first time looked
upon th