[figure description] Page 244.[end figure description]

“I have no doubt, that in this hideous
proposal, the poor distracted father, incapable
of rising or moving, and, therefore, of
yielding his daughter any protection, was
quite in earnest; but, of course, this call was
as little likely to be obeyed as the other; though
it stung me into something like shame, that
among so many men as we had still alive in
the boat, there should not be one able or
willing to strike a blow on behalf of a young
and helpless woman. This shame nerved me
anew with a kind of courage, which I had immediately
an opportunity of employing to
advantage; although certain I am, it must
have soon died away under the horrors that

[figure description] Page 245.[end figure description]

followed, had not aid and encouragement
reached us from an unexpected quarter.

“Three Indians suddenly made their appearance
at the bow of the boat, of whom
one was still clambering among the shaking
branches of the sycamore, while the two
others sprang, with loud whoops, upon the
forecastle. I fired my piece, which I had recharged
at the first pulse of excitement, at
the foremost Indian, who fell down among
us in the agonies of death; while a second
shot, fired by some unknown hand from the
river, took effect on his comrade, who also
fell dead. At the same moment, there sprang
into the boat a figure in which I recognised,
at the first glance—could I believe my eyes?—
the phantom of the oar—that very spectre,
on whose pallid forehead was wrapped a
handkerchief spotted with crusted blood,
whose appearance had been supposed to portend
the calamity which had now overtaken
us. The likeness to young Connor was now
more apparent than ever; and, indeed, extended
even to the voice, with which the apparition,
as he leaped upon the forecastle, exclaimed,
in tones that thrilled us all to the
marrow—`If you are not the wretchedest
dastards that ever lay still to be murdered,

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up and shoot!—up and shoot!—while I cut
the boat loose!' With which words, he
snatched up from the forecastle, where it had
been dropt by the dying Parker, an axe, with
which he immediately attacked, and, with a
blow, struck down the third savage; and then
fell to work on the branch by which we were
entangled, shouting to us, all the while, to
`fire upon the enemy,' whose bullets, aimed
at himself, he seemed entirely to disregard,
while escaping them by a miracle.

“ `It is Tom Connor himself!' cried I,
fired by his extraordinary appearance into
such spirit as I had never before felt—`give
it to the dogs, and he will save us!'

“I seized upon another gun, of which the
dead and wounded had left enough lying
about, already loaded; and backed by three
other men, who now recovered their courage,
let fly among a cluster of savages who
were scrambling one over the other among
the boughs of the tree. My supporters did
the same; and our shots, each telling upon
an enemy, produced, among other good effects,
a diversion in favour of our auxiliary
with the axe; who, still wielding his weapon,
shouted to us to `leave our guns and take to
the oars'—a command that was obeyed by

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myself and one other boatman, who followed
me to the deck.

“We had scarce touched the oars, before
the broad-horn swung free, and floated rapidly
from the sycamore and from the bank.

“ `Give way, and all are safe!' cried our
preserver, dropping his axe, and springing to
the steering-oar, with which he directed the
boat into the centre of the river, calling all
the time, though in vain, for others to come
up and help at the oars. None were willing—
and, alas, as we soon discovered, few were
able—to help us; and the further labour, with
the danger, of completing our escape, was
left entirely to ourselves—to three men, each
of whom stood fully exposed to the shots of
the enemy, of which many a one took effect
on our bodies. It was not, indeed, until we
had put nearly the whole width of the river
between the broad-horn and her assailants,
and when the danger was almost, if not entirely
over, that we received any assistance.
Three men, of whom one was entirely unhurt,
the others but slightly wounded, then crept
up, and took our places at the oars, which
we were scarce able longer to maintain.

“I turned to Connor—for Connor it was—

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who, crying out, `Well done, Michael Law!
we've saved the boat, if we die for it'—fell
flat upon his face on the deck, deprived of all
sense, and, as I at first feared, of life. He
was, indeed, desperately wounded in many
places; having, besides the recent marks of
combat, several wounds, one of which was
on his head, that seemed to have been received
several days before. Upon taking him
up, I discovered he was still breathing, though
faintly; on which, with the assistance of my
comrades, I carried him into the cabin, where
lay, or rather sat the wounded Colonel; who,
though aware of our escape from the Indians,
was yet ignorant of the means by which our
deliverance had been effected.

“ `Bravo! victory!' he cried, with exulting
voice, the moment he laid eyes on me;
`you've beaten the enemy, Mike Law, and
I'll make your fortune! But what poor devil's
this you're lugging among us, where there's
so many dead already?'

“ `This,' said I, `Colonel'—laying the young
man at his feet—`is the true-blue that won
us the victory—no less a man than your
turned-off friend, Tom Connor.'

“ `Tom Connor!' cried he, looking with

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amazement upon the youth's countenance,
all pale and stained with blood; `'tis he, by
heavens! But how came he among us?'

“ `The Lord sent him,' said I—and said it
very seriously; `for, sure, he came in no mortal
way whatever. All I know is, that he
jumped right out of the river into the broad-horn,
shot a savage as he jumped, picked up
Sam Parker's axe, and killed another; and
then cut us loose from the sycamore, and
steered us into the channel.'

“ `What!' cried Colonel Storm; `Tom
Connor do this? Tom Connor, that was such
a fiddling, dancing, book-reading, verse-writing,
womanish good-for-naught? What! Tom
Connor kill two Indians, when that cursed
coward, Sharpe there, slunk away like a
ducked kitten? Call my girl here! He shall
have her, and cut Sharpe's throat into the
bargain. Throw the white-livered rascal over-board!
'

“I turned my looks upon the dishonoured
soldier, who lay, as I had left him, still cowering
behind a box, with his eyes yet sending
out a ghastly glare as before. Looking at
him more intently, I perceived he was dead:
indeed, he had received a bullet directly
through the spine and heart, which had struck

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him while in the act of turning and leaping
from the deck. I informed the Colonel of
this mischance; but he was now hugging and
weeping over the wounded Connor, whom he
swore he loved better than his own soul, and
would never abuse again as long as he lived.

“The veteran then, being reminded of his
daughter, bade me look her out in her cabin;
where, guided by the lamentations of her
women, who burst into yells (for I believe
they took me for an Indian,) as I entered, I
found her lying in a swoon, into which she
had fallen at the beginning of the action.
Neither she nor her attendants had received
any hurt, the little cabin being bullet-proof;
and charging the latter to hold their peace,
recover their mistress from her swoon, and
then come to the assistance of the wounded
men, I went again into the main cabin, and
upon deck, to look upon the state of affairs,
and examine into the extent of our losses.
These were, indeed, dreadful. Of twenty
men, nine were already dead, and all the
others, one only excepted, severely wounded,
four of them, as it was afterwards proved,
mortally.”

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