"It strikes me," Frank observed, "that it is a mighty good thing we've got that hot hole to drift down stream in. If the Black Bear had only been constructed on the principle of the Wolf, we'd be in a position to give these heathens the laugh. Well, let us pull the Wolf up and throw out stuff enough to give us room. Then we'll get out the dynamite."
The boys drew the Wolf up by the cable as Frank tried to elude the watchful eyes of the savages long enough to open the hatch on top and climb inside, but a dozen arrows whizzed by his head when he looked out.
"Can't do it!" he said.
"Never in the world!" Jack assented.
"Another good scheme gone wrong!" Harry ejaculated. "What next?"
"Dynamite," almost shouted Jack. "We'll give them dynamite as long as it lasts, and then ram the logs below."
"We may kill, a couple of hundred," Frank said, "but it seems to me that there will be about ten thousand left."
The boys were indeed in a tight box. With their automatics and their dynamite they might keep the natives at bay for a time, but in the end they would be obliged to surrender or starve to death.
"Well," Jack said, grimly, "let's get out the dynamite. I want to see some of these devils blown up!"
Just then an arrow struck the plate glass panel at the top of the Black Bear's deck covering and Jack looked up. He gazed a moment in wonder and then let out a shout that rose above the yelling of the savages and the pounding of arrows against the panels of the Black Bear.