ow, Paul. We're out uv range, though not uv
sight."

Paul straightened up, laid his paddle in the boat, and gasped for breath.

"Look over thar, Paul, ef you want to see a pleasant scene," said Jim Hart
calmly.

Paul's gaze followed the long man's pointing finger, and he saw at least
twenty warriors gathered on the bank, and regarding them now in dead
silence.

"Mad!" said Jim Hart. "Mad clean through!"

"They've chased us on land, and now they are chasing us on water. I wonder
where they will chase us next," said Paul.

"Not through the air, 'cause they can't fly, nor kin we," said Jim Hart
sagely.

Paul looked back again at the ferocious band gathered on the shore, and,
while he could not see their faces at the distance, he could imagine the
evil passions pictured there. As he gazed the band broke up, and many of
them came running along the shore. Then Paul noticed that the prow of
their canoe was not turned toward the island, but was bearing steadily
toward the north end of the lake, leaving the island well to the left. He
glanced at Jim Hart, and the long man laughed low, but with deep
satisfaction.

"Don't you see, Paul," he said, "that we kain't go to the islan' an' show
to them that we've been livin' thar? That might wipe out all the spell uv
the place. We got to let 'em think we're 'fraid uv it, too, an' that we
dassent land thar. We'll paddle up to the head uv the lake, come down on
the other side, an' then, when it's atween us an' them, we'll come across
to our islan'."

They were still abreast of the island, and yet midway between it and the
mainland. Paul saw the Indians running along the shore, and now and then
taking a shot at the canoe. But the bullets always fell short.

"Foolish! Plumb foolish," said Jim Hart, "a-wastin' good powder an' good
lead in sech a fashion!"

"That one struck nearer," said Paul, as a little jet of water spurted up
in the lake. "Keep her off, Jim. A bullet that is not wasted might come
along directly."

Hart sheered the boat off a little toward the island, and then took a long
look at a warrior who had reached a projecting point of land.

"That thar feller looks like a chief," he said, "an' I kain't say that his
looks please me a-tall, a-tall. I don't like the set uv his figger one
little bit."

"What difference does it make?" said Paul. "You can't change it."

"Wa'al, now, I was a-thinkin' that maybe I could," drawled Jim Hart.
"Hold the boat steady, Paul."