Part 85 (1/2)
”Not a bit sorry I killed soe beasts”
It did not take long, for there was plenty of room in the little fleet of canoes The prisoners were divided, so placed in the canoes with the plunder, and treated as if they were spoil Others were divided a canoes, manned by the enemy, whose oounded men, even to the worst, did not hesitate to take to a paddle, and fill their places Some of the children whimpered, but an apathetic state of misery and dejection seemed to have affected even them, while in one or two cases, a blow from a paddle was sufficient to awe the poor little unfortunates into silence
As soon as the last man was in his place, a herculean chief waved his hands; one of his followers raised a great wooden tru note; the paddles dipped almost as one into the water, and the men burst into a triureat war canoes which they had captured sith their freight of spoil at a rapid rate southward along the shore
Then the sudden burst of energy ceased, the song broke off, the speed diminished; and the men slowly dipped their paddles in a heavy, droay Every now and then one of the warriors ceased paddling, or contented hireat serpent-like vessels glided on, though slohile the darkness came on rapidly, and the water flashed as its phosphorescent inhabitants were disturbed
The darkness grew intense, but not for long Soon a gradual lightening becalanced along the surface of the sea, as therow of dusky warriors sluggishly urging the great canoes onward
Don and Jeest and leading canoe; and as they sat there in silence, the strangeness of the scene appeared awful The shore looked almost black, save where the round; but the sea see easily in a h was heard fro keenly as they cowered down in the boat
Don sat watching the weird panora himself at times if it was all real, or only the effect of some vivid dreaone through what he had on the previous night, and be there now, borne who could say whither, by the successful raiders, ere lided on
”It must be a dream,” he said to himself ”I shall awake soon, and--”
”What a chance, Mas' Don!” said a low voice at his side, to prove to him that he ake
”Chance? What chance?” said Don, starting
”I don't ive it to them, and serve 'em as they served our poor friends; for they was friends to us, Mas' Don”
”I wish the wretches could be punished,” said Don sadly; ”but I see no chance of that”
”Ah! Wait a bit, my lad; you don't know But what a chance it would be with them all in this state If it wasn't that I don't care about being drowned, I should like to set to ith my pocket knife, and make a hole in the bottouilty, Jem”
”Ay, that's so, ry?”
”Yes, I suppose so, Jery; but I feel as if I have had no food I ary”
”So am I sometimes when my shoulder burns; at other times I feel as if I could eat wood”
They sat in silence as thelines of paddles in the different boats looked e, while in the distance ablack line of trees flashed in thesilver fire
”Wonder where they'll take us?” said Jem, at last
”To their _pah_, I suppose,” replied Don, drea to eat e get there, eh?”
”I suppose so, Jem I don't know, and I feel too miserable even to try and think”
”Ah,” said Jem; ”that's how those poor women and the wounded prisoners feel, Mas' Don; but they're only copper-coloured blacks, and we're whites We can't afford to feel as they do Look here, h to try and escape?”
”I don't know, Jem”