"Look out!" warned the Captain. "He means to shoot you!"
The endangered fellow was so flustered that he broke the regularity of the strokes of the two, though Jack Bertram strove hard to catch it again. He kept his eye on the young warrior, who rigidly straightened his left arm, with the hand gripping the middle of the long bow, while he drew the feathered arrow to its head, and sighted at the alarmed oarsman.
Captain Smith watched Nantaquas, not allowing the slightest movement to escape him. Suddenly he called:
"Down!"
The other Smith instantly flung himself forward on his face, so that he was hidden by the low gunwale. Bertram, hardly knowing what he did, dodged to one side. The Captain did not stir. He knew he was in no danger.
At the same moment that the oarsman went down Nantaquas launched his arrow, which came with such swiftness that it made a flickering streak in the sunlight which the eye could hardly follow. Captain Smith caught a glimpse of something like the flitting of a bird's wing, and the missile flashed over the very spot where the intended victim had been sitting an instant before, driven with such unerring aim that, but for his quickness, the arrow would have been buried in his chest.
So great was the power with which the missile was fired that it seemed to dart horizontally outward for nearly a hundred feet beyond the boat before it dipped enough for the point to drop into the water, where it turned rapidly over several times, and the flint-head sank below the surface.
Brief as was the time, the oarsman partly regained his coolness. He raised his head, but instead of drawing upon his oars he dropped them, and reached for the musket at his feet. His companion kept toiling with all his strength.
"Drop that!" thundered Captain Smith. "It would serve you right if you were killed! Use your oars!"
The two men, in their flurry, forgot to hold the boat to the right course, so that it took a more direct one than before. Had this been done from the first, Nantaquas could not have launched his arrow without endangering Captain Smith, since he would have been in the line of aim. At any moment the Captain could have shot Nantaquas, who stood out in the clear view, or either of his companions could have done the same, but the leader would not allow it. He sympathized with the "prince," and though he did not care to have the offender slain, he would not permit any injury to be done to Nantaquas.