To have gone on fighting would have meant death to both, for the savages were yelling outside and piling on the bushes and fern fronds till they roared.
I caught the scarf then, and was half-hauled half-scrambled up, to fall down blinded and suffocated almost, only able to point below.
I saw them lower the scarf again, and after what seemed a tremendous time Jimmy’s black figure appeared.
Almost at the same moment there were tongues of flame mingled with the smoke, and Jimmy threw himself down and rolled over and over, sobbing and crying.
“Burn um hot um. Oh, burn um—burn um—burn um!”
There was a loud roar and a rush of flame and smoke out of the rift, followed by what seemed to be a downpour of the smoke that hung over us like a canopy, just as if it was all being sucked back, and then the fire appeared to be smouldering, and up through the smoke that now rose slowly came the dank strange smell of exploded powder and the sounds of voices talking eagerly, but coming like a whisper to where we lay.