th
which I hoped to be able to keep the savages at bay until we were fairly
afloat once more.

But the fight was by no means over yet, for we had not gone far when a
shower of at least thirty arrows flew about us from a point on our left,
showing that the savages were following us up under cover, evidently
with the intention of heading us, if possible.

I was wounded thrice by this discharge: one arrow sticking in the back
of my neck, and causing me the greatest uneasiness, a second lodging in
my left shoulder, and a third completely piercing the calf of my leg. I
succeeded in removing some of these annoyances by thrusting them right
through the flesh, breaking off the heads, and drawing out the broken
shafts; but those in my neck and shoulder were firmly imbedded in the
muscles, and I found I could not remove them without some sort of
surgical assistance.

Ella had fortunately escaped again, and as soon as I had rid myself as
far as I could of the arrows, we pressed on once more, I keeping as much
between my companion and the cover of the foe as was possible. The poor
girl was nearly fainting with terror, but she made a brave effort to
keep up her spirits, and really behaved wonderfully well.

There was now a pause of a minute or two in the attack, and this enabled
us to reach a point where we were not only nearly out of range of the
arrows, but where we were also enabled to get a clear view of our goal.

We passed beyond the cover of the intervening bush, and there lay the
beach, with no less than fifteen canoes drawn up on it. They were of
various sizes, some large enough to carry perhaps thirty men, others not
capable of accommodating more than four or six.

The headland I had indicated to Bob lay about a mile on our right; but
the boat was nowhere to be seen. Fortunately there seemed to be no one
left in charge of the canoes, and I at once made up my mind to take the
smallest (if I could succeed in gaining the beach), and push off _in
it_, and finish the fight afloat, trusting that Bob would yet arrive in
time to lend us his aid in effecting our escape.

I told Ella, in a few hasty words, what I intended, directing her to get
into the smallest canoe the moment we reached the beach, and then lie
down flat in the bottom of it. We hurried forward, for increasing
weakness and an occasional swimming of objects before my sight, warned
me that my strength was rapidly failing with the blood which was
trickling