“And I’m so hungry that I feel like a dog with a bone,” snapped the major. “I won’t give ’em up without a fight. Come in here, my boy, and I’ll have a good try for it. We’ve plenty of ammunition, and perhaps a peppering with small-shot will scare the blackguards away.”
Mark obeyed, and the next moment, with their birds, they were snugly ensconced in a little natural fortification, open to attack only on one side, the others being protected by the rocks and the dense jungle.
This movement took them out of sight of their pursuer, who was hidden now by the trees.
“Now, my boy, lay out some cartridges, and keep down out of sight. You reload, and keep on exchanging guns. I’m a soldier, and will do the fighting. I meant to run and leave our dinner, undignified as it may be; but hang me if I do at the sight of a half-naked savage with a spear.”
“But there must be a whole tribe of them behind, sir,” whispered Mark.
“Yes; that’s the worst of it. But never mind, I’ll pepper their skins, and perhaps that will stop them. But look here, my boy, if matters begin to look very ugly you are not to hesitate for a moment.”
“Yah!”
A pause.
“Yoy-oy-oy-oy!”
This last in a different tone, but both yells were of a most savage, highly-pitched nature.