Kenton kept his word, so far as setting a rapid pace was concerned. Never before nor since have I strained every muscle and nerve for so many hours on a stretch.
There were times when we pressed on as if running a foot-race, and more than once did one or the other of us come full against a tree with such force that we were hurled backward at full length on the ground.
There was no time to attend to bruises, however severe, for close in our rear came the relentless brutes, hoping, most likely, for just such a mishap when they could lessen our number by one.
I believe they fired at us fifty times before we halted for a day's rest which must be spent in defending ourselves, and by the mercy of God no bullet came nigh us.
I watched eagerly for the first signs of dawn; my breath was coming thick and fast, and I feared lest I might fall and not find myself able to rise again.
Paul had kept close at Kenton's heels without betraying fatigue or distress; but just at the moment when it seemed as if I must halt, whatever might be the consequences, he cried sharply:
"I can go no further. You two must keep on without me! It is better that I be left behind than for all to perish!"
"We'll all come out of it with whole skins, or fall together," Simon Kenton said sharply. "Try to hold the pace, lad, till we find a place in which we can defend ourselves."
Even as he spoke we had arrived at a spot where half a dozen large trees had been overthrown by the wind, forming exactly the kind of a fortification needed by those sorely beset as were we.
Kenton helped Paul over the logs into the very center, and I followed with many a stumble, falling on my face, utterly blown, when we were in the middle of the timber network.