Recognizing that all their clamoring was gaining them nothing, the howling ones dropped suddenly into silence; and, picking up small stones and pebbles, began to hurl them furiously at Ru. Their aim was good, and the missiles went hurtling through the air at tremendous speed; but the fugitive was already out of range; and the pebbles splashed harmlessly in a little shower to his rear.
Angry mutterings now sounded from the throats of the stone-throwers. With deep-voiced growls and grumblings, three or four of them strode out into the water after their fleeing prey. Ru's alarm grew by leaps and bounds as the wavelets broke first over their knees, then over their thighs, then almost up to their sloping shoulders and bull-like necks—and his dread turned to actual terror when he observed them swimming, swimming toward him with rapid and powerful strokes! Through the fast-diminishing distance, he could watch their hideous round heads bobbing up and down, could see the gleam of the fiendish little eyes and the brutish lines of the heavy eye-ridges.
On and on they came; their great arms clove the water with the easy, regular strokes of accomplished swimmers; their hairy, baboonish faces were twisted into diabolical grins. And Ru, though he tugged and pushed at his pole with all his force, could not match the speed of his pursuers; the space between them steadily grew less and less until it measured but a stone's throw.
Like a pack of wolves upon a cornered deer, they pressed nearer, still nearer, until he could see the white glittering of their enormous teeth and make out the clotted blood-streaks on their outthrust arms. Then a sudden idea come to Ru. Abruptly he ceased his paddling; carefully he balanced himself on the broadest and flattest part of the log. And into his anxious face and pale gray eyes a grim smile flitted as he stood there and waited.
But his pursuers seemed not to suspect that anything was amiss. An evil leer lighted the eyes of the swiftest of the band as he drew near; he muttered in savage triumph as he stretched out a massive black arm toward the log where Ru stood.
But his arm was never to reach the log. In a flash Ru had swung his paddle from its hiding-place behind him; and with a dull thud the heavy stick came down upon the head of his assailant.
The swimmer sank back with a low piteous moan. His form collapsed helplessly into the waters; there was a sudden floundering of arms, a gurgling, a few bubbles—and one man less was afloat upon the lake.
Still with a grim smile, Ru looked out across the waters. Not fifty feet away, two or three dark bobbing faces were peering at him hesitatingly. Ru held his place firmly on the log, shouted a challenge, and swung his club angrily. And the swimmers, after a moment's indecision, made unexpected response to the threat—of one accord, they turned and energetically splashed their way shoreward.