Down went the men in heaps, and with them the planks they carried.

They had no more wish to storm the slave camp; they had but one thought left, the thought of safety, and the survivors of them fled in all directions, yelling with fear and fury.
"Load up, load up!" cried Otter, lifting the charge of powder which lay at hand.

"They will try to break open the gates and get out, then they will cut us off." As he spoke they saw many men run from the auction-shed to the water-gate.

But it could not be climbed, the key was gone, and the massive bolts and beams were not easy to break.

So they brought hammers and a tree-trunk which had supported an angle of the shed, and battered at the gate.