| Larry. | } | Lost! |
| Alice. |
Walter. You shall hear. A league or two below this, we entered a charming stream, that seemed to glide through a fairy land of fertility. I must know more of this, said our captain. Await my return here. So bidding us moor the pinnace in a broad basin, where the Indian's arrows could reach us from neither side, away he went, alone in his boat, to explore the river to its head.
Larry. Gallant soul!
Walter. What devil prompted us to disobey his command I know not, but scarce was he out of sight, when we landed; and mark the end on't: up from their ambuscado started full three hundred black fiends, with a yell that might have appalled Lucifer, and whiz came a cloud of arrows about our ears. Three tall fellows of ours fell: Cassen, Emery, and Robinson. Our lieutenant, with Percy and myself, fought our way to the water side, where, leaving our canoe as a trophy to the victors, we plunged in, ducks, and, after swimming, dodging, and diving like regained the pinnace that we had left like geese.
Alice. Heaven be praised, you are safe; but our poor captain—
Walter. Aye; the day passed and he returned not; we came back for a reinforcement, and to-morrow we find him, or perish.
Alice. Perish!—
Walter. Aye; shame seize the poltroon who wou'dn't perish in such a cause; wou'dn't you, Larry?
Larry. By Saint Patrick, it's the thing I would do, and hould my head the higher for it all the days of my life after.
Walter. But see, our lieutenant and master Percy.