Page:Hugh Pendexter--Tiberius Smith.djvu/249

 Straight, and not too swift, the hand-bomb, substituted for the bunch of leather, sped, and smash! The Blue Hens had made the first and only hit of the day. But such a hit! Bang! and a dozen colored balls of fire radiated about the batter's head. One or two arrows whimpered by, but the most of the gang had fallen on their faces.

"With a crazy yell I drove my three bombs at the bowmen and saw each one explode. Tib let drive another at the chief, who sat stupefied on the home plate, and it took him square in the forehead. Then as the night fell like a blanket we ran for the river. In passing the old woman, who lay prostrate by the fire, I saw in the evil glow something on her necklace glitter. Before I knew it I had wrenched it from off her throat.

"There was no pursuit. We blundered on through the darkness until we came to the river and found a canoe made of one broad piece of bark, laced up at either end in a sharp point. One night and a day we paddled on, with nothing to eat but raw fish. At times we were hemmed in by walls of metamorphic rock. Now we were tossed over rapids and only came through by luck. Again the floating vegetation threatened to end our flight. And all through it the fear of the Blue Hen men was upon us, although Tib showed it not. At last we reached Vista Alegre, where Santos found us