Brilliantly colored globes of fire spattered from it in all directions. Red, green, and blue. The savages howled with terror and rage and mystification. This was a new method of warfare to them.
"Hooray! we've got 'em going!" shouted Cal, as the savage, whom the rocket had knocked over, scrambled to his feet with surprising agility and sprinted back among his brethren.
"That was shot Number One!" cried Nat, putting another rocket in place and lighting the fuse. Like the other, the second rocket sped straight and true for the massed bodies of the aborigines. Before they could recover from their surprise, it was upon them. Roaring and sputtering like a fiery comet, it sped among their legs, sending sparks and fire all over them. As the brands fell on their naked skins the savages broke into wild yells and cries. Panic reigned in their ranks.
In the light of the bursting star-case of the rocket our party could see black forms darting off into the bush in all directions. The ordeal of fire had proven too much for them. They shouted with fear as they ran helter-skelter in every direction.
Our friends shouted, too, but with far different emotions, as they shoved the boat over the strip of sand between her and the water's edge. In another minute they had her launched and were off. Cal took the oars and saw the light craft flying across the smooth surface of the lake.
Suddenly Nat gave a cry.
"There's a canoe ahead there coming toward us!"
"By George, so there is!" cried Captain Akers. "What if it is the forerunner of a fleet of them?"
But there was no cause for such apprehension, for the craft, in a few seconds more, proved to be none other than the canoe beneath which Nat had surprised the sleeping savages. In it were Joe and Ding-dong. They had been profoundly distressed at Nat's vanishment and their relief when they heard his voice may be imagined.
They had seen the rockets while they were disconsolately paddling about, waiting for daylight to prosecute a search for their companions. Rightly surmising that they were fired by members of the Motor Ranger party, they at once made for that direction. They were little prepared, however for the surprise that awaited them.