"Cover my retreat," repeated Hezekiah, as if he found it difficult to understand the exact meaning of his friend.
"Suppose that man fires at me and kills me?"
"Be that token, Pat Mulroony will consider that it's dangerous for him to follow yees, and will retrate, like a wise gineral, into the woods."
Hezekiah still debated whether it was his duty to run such a risk for the benefit of his companion or not, but finally compromised the matter by offering to carry him upon his back.
"The water ain't very deep," said he, "and as my legs are a yard or two the longest, I'll keep you dry, and you'll run the same chance of being struck that I will."
"It's a bargain," said Pat, immediately mounting the back of Hezekiah.
For the convenience of the latter, the Irishman took the guns of both, and with his heavy load upon his back, Hezekiah Smith stepped cautiously into the river. He had entered it some distance below the flat-boat, so that he would have no trouble in intercepting it, and he now strided as rapidly as possible through the water.
He had gone, perhaps, two-thirds of the distance, and the water reached almost to his waist, when the head of the man on the flat-boat again appeared, and pointing his rifle over it, he called out:
"You infernal decoys, what do you mean by coming out here? I'll give you just two seconds to reach the shore again, and if you come a foot nearer, I'll blow daylight through you."