Unpossable--widout _dis_!" The negro drew the revolver from his belt, slewed round, took rapid aim and fired.
The tall figure in the bow of the boat fell back with a crash and a hideous yell.

Great shouting and confusion followed, and the boat dropped behind.

A few minutes later and the canoe was leaping over the surges of a shallow rapid.

They dashed from eddy to eddy, taking advantage of every stone that formed a tail of backwater below it, and gradually worked the light craft upward in a way that the hermit and his man had learned in the nor'-western rivers of America.
"We are not safe yet," said the former, resting and wiping his brow as they floated for a few seconds in a calm basin at the head of the rapid.
"Surely they cannot take a boat up such a place as that!" "Nay, but they can follow up the banks on foot.

However, we will soon baffle them, for the river winds like a serpent just above this, and by carrying our canoe across one, two, or three spits of land we will gain a distance in an hour or so that would cost them nearly a day to ascend in boats.