"That would answer for a little while, but the fish do not bite readily in this wintry weather, and we shall grow tired."
"The scouts who spent so much time ashore told us that no Indians were near; that ought to satisfy us. Let us go ashore, where we can stretch our limbs and perhaps find game."
The proposal was in direct disregard of the order of their leader, but it was agreeable to each of the four men. They can hardly be blamed for feeling as they did over the prospect of remaining in virtual imprisonment so long, but their act, none the less, was wrong. Bertram and Smith rose to their feet and began plying their poles. The water was five or six feet in depth, and under their efforts the craft began sidling toward land. While the couple were toiling the others scanned the wooded bank which they were nearing. They must have felt a misgiving, for each laid his musket across his knee, and one of them wrinkled his brows and shook his head, but said nothing, and the poles were used with a vigor that steadily lessened the fifty yards or more it was necessary to pass to reach land.
The point at which the boat was directed was an open space, several square yards in extent, and favorable for stepping ashore from the craft. Beyond and on the two sides stretched the wood, with its rank undergrowth and matted vines. If there was any current it was too sluggish to be noted.
The side of the boat was so near the bank that it was a slight leap for any one. Smith was standing with his pole motionless, and on the point of making the jump, when one of his friends, who had also risen, gun in hand, called out in an excited undertone:
"Back-quick! The woods are full of Indians!"
CHAPTER IX.
HARD PRESSED
It was fortunate, that when the Indians warriors swarmed out of the woods to attack the boat so near shore, the four white men on board did not lose their presence of mind. This was partly due to the feeling which had come, more or less, to every one, that they were doing a dangerous thing in thus disobeying the order of Captain John Smith. Thus they were partly prepared for that which broke upon them with so much suddenness.
Smith and Bertram used the poles to the utmost, despite the arrows whizzing about them. They pushed so hard that the boat quickly yielded, and the space between it and the land widened with every moment. Their companions aimed their muskets at the crowding forms, and fired with such skill that each brought down a warrior.