“Yes; but the hellions ’ll r’member these last two days,” said Mace, grimly. “No danger of their comin’ at us ag’in right away. They’ll wait till we’re as weak as babies from hunger, an’ then try ter git the hull posse on us alive! We mout ’s well keep it up, an’ git our deaths by fightin’.”
“It’s better’n to be kilt alive at dthe sthake!” assented Devine, with a shudder.
“Time enough to begin another scrimmage; thar’s no danger but that the entrance ’ll be guarded close enough now,” answered Scarred Eagle. “But we’d best recruit as best we kin, so’s to hev our strength collected for the last trial. Thar’s jest a chance some on us may git off, though it’s a small one. D’ye see a light ahead, boy?”
The question was addressed to Brom, who stood beside Moorooine in the end of the canoe, peering back through the passage.
“No!” was the response; “but thar’s several canoes hovering outside the entrance, in the starlight. They ain’t a-goin’ to come back here right away.”
“Of course not. What is it, Revel?”
The latter had crept up into the other passage, and now returned.
“The scamps are filling up the passage,” he said.
“Ay—’cos it’ll be easier to watch the other way. They needn’t ’a’ took the pains.”
He saw that Revel, after waiting a moment, made a silent gesture for him to come forward. He followed him up into the passage as far as it had been cleared from the inside. Revel carried a new torch, and by its light revealed a crevice which he had discovered. Then, putting the torch behind them, they could distinguish, at about ten feet distant, the starlight from outside.