The chief left the shore and gave quick, low orders to the men, who sank back into the forest, taking Paul and Braxton Wyatt with them.

Two warriors, having Paul between them, crouched in a dense thicket, and one of them tapped the unarmed boy meaningly with his tomahawk.

Paul did not see Braxton Wyatt, but he supposed that he was held similarly by other warriors, somewhere near.

In truth, he did not see any of the savages except the two who were with him.

All the rest had melted away with the extraordinary facility that they had for hiding themselves, but Paul knew that they were about him, pressed close to the earth, blurred with the foliage or sheltered by tree trunks.
The boy's eyes turned back to the river, and the black blot floating on its surface.