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410 will, in order to pass the place he spoke of before the Indians could get to it, and aided by the rapid current, our little boat fairly flew down the stream. As we approached the dreaded locality where we knew the open pine land came down to the water’s edge, we scanned the shore closely for our expected foes, but not a living thing was anywhere visible. We were just beginning to con gratulate ourselves on being beforehand with them, when six or eight of the sav ages rose up from a clump of bushes on the bank, and fired a volley into our boat; but fortunately without touch ing any one except Bob Harris, who was slightly grazed on his arm by a bul let. At the moment the Indians fired upon us, we were passing a little marshy islet, that lay about the centre of the stream, which was thickly covered with a dense growth of tall grass and bushes. “Pull for the island, quick, boys,” said Bob, “ and we’ll give the rascals a fight any how.” We hastened to comply with the order of Bob, who by tacit consent had assum ed the command in the emergency, and besides there was evidently no other chance leltus, as the Indians were below us, and their bullets were already falling thick and fast around our boat. Lucki ly, on the side of the islet next to us there was a little narrow cove, of suffi cient depth to take in our boat, and into this we pushed it with our oars, and in a few moments were hidden from the view of the Indians by the rank grass and bushes and drift-wood with which it was covered. But the Indians still continued to fire upon us at random, and the mo ment we landed, we went to work, and soon built up a sort of breastwork of drift-wood which afforded us a tem porary shelter from ther bullets. It is astonishing how fast men or boys can work under such circumstances ! I once saw some prisoners we had with us in less than fifteen minutes after we had got into a battle with the Mexicans, dig holes in the hard prairies with their but cher knives , sufficiently deep to shelter themselves from the balls of their friends. People, in cases of great emergency, are apt to think fast, and if they do not lose their presence of mind, to act promptly. “Boys, 1 ’ said Bob Harris, when he found that our breastwork was sufficient to afford us protection from the bullets of the Indians, “ it will be necessary for one of us, to watch the movements of the enemy, for fear they may concoct and carry out some scheme to take us by surprise. Who will volunteer to take the first ‘ watch?’ ” “I will,” said Tommy Hughes. “Well then,” replied Bob, “creep out cautiously to the edge of the bushes at the upper end of the island, where you can command a good view of the river above, and if you see any suspi cious movements, come back at once and let us know of it. If the Indians should attempt to ‘ board us ’ on rafts, BURKE’S WEEKLY FOR BOYS AND GIRLS. they can only do so by launching them on the river above, for they could not pole them up stream against this cur rent.” Tommy seized his rifle, and in obedi ence to the order of Captain Bob, slipped off through the grass and bushes in the direction of the upper end of the island. “ If we can only keep them at bay,” said Bob, “until night comes on, we can ‘ run the gauntlet’ and pass them in our boat with but little danger, under cover of the darkness.” “ Well,” said Jimmy Dunn, as a bullet knocked the dust into his eyes from one of the drift logs in our breastwork, “if this is what you call ‘ camp hunting,’ I have seen enough of it already to sat isfy me.” “ Oh, poh I” replied Bob Harris, “you won’t mind a little scrimmage like this at all after you get used to it.” “ No, but I should never get used to it,” replied Jimmy, ducking his head as a bullet whistled a few inches above it. “I’m very fond of hunting, but when the game gets to shooting rifle balls back at a fellow, the sport is a little too exciting to suit me.” “ The rascals are fixing up some plan to board us,” said Bob. “They have quit their yelling, and I think I can hear the sound of their hatchets chopping in the swamp above us. We must prevent them from getting on the island at all hazzard, for if they should effect a landing our case will be a hope less one, indeed.” “ We all assured the captain that we would do our best to keep them at a dis tance. For half an hour or more, noth ing was heard from our wily foes, ex cept the continued chopping sound we had noticed before in the swamp above. At length we saw our spy, Jimmy, com ing hurriedly through the bushes to wards us. We knew in a moment he had made some discovery of importance to us, and as soon as he came up we all eagerly inquired, “what is the matter?” “ Matter.enough,” he answered ; “the rascals have built a raft above us, and eight or ten of them are now on it, and they’ll be aboard of us in less than ten minutes unless we can manage in some way to stop them.” “ Boys,” said Capt. Bob, in a low but determined tone, “ now comes the tug of war. We must ‘ sicken’ the fellows of this job, and they’ll not be apt to try their luck on the water again. We must give them a warm reception, if we would keep our scalps on the top of our heads an hour longer. See that your guns and ammunition are all in order and follow me.” Saying this, he took his way towards the upper end of the little island, and the rest of us cautiously followed in his wake. The islet, as I have said, was s a very small one, (perhaps not a quar ter of an acre in extent,) and we soon came to the upper extremity. Here we laid down in the rank grass, whilst Capt. Bob went on as far as he could without exposing himself to the Indians, to re connoitre their movements. Before leaving us, he told us the instant we heard the report of his rifle to rush for ward to the end of the islet, take ‘ sure aim’ and fire as rapidly and as effective ly as we could at the Indians on the raft. He had scarcely had time, we thought, to reach the end of the islet, when the report of his rifle gave us notice that the moment for action had come. Spring ing from our ambush, we darted for ward and commenced pouring in a dead ly fire from our rifles upon the party of Indians who were rapidly nearing us on their raft. The Indians from the shore returned our fire, and their bullets whist led spitefully around us, but the party on the raft were so much ‘ demoralized’ by our sudden and spirited ‘sortie’ that they jumped overboard and swam ashore leaving most of their guns and equip ments upon it. The Indians on the shore, when they witnessed the discomfiture of their com rades on the raft, raised a deafening yell of rage and disappointment, and gave us a general volley from their rifles, but as we were pretty much hidden from their view by the grass and bushes, they fired at random, an 1 their balls went harm lsesly over our heads. The deserted raft floated down and lodged on the end of our island. Two Indians were lying upon it killed by our rifle balls, and the guns and accoutrements of five or six others who had escaped to the shore by swimming. “ Well done, boys,” said Capt. Bob, “you have behaved like veterans and have gallantly repelled the enemy. I shall certainly mention you all honora bly in my report to headquarters. Nev ertheless, I believe there is a great deal of truth in the old saying, ‘discre tion is the better part of valor,’ and as there is no necessity for all of us to re main here, exposed to the enemy’s fire, if someone will volunteer to take the place of Tommy Hughes on watch, the rest will retire to the shelter of our breastwork, and wait patiently for anoth er demonstration on the part of the In dians ; though I rather think they wont try the raft again.” Wiley Sparks volunteered to keep watch and the rest of us took shelter once more behind our breastwork. The hours rolled by and nothing was heard from the Indians. Jimmy Dunn proposed we should embark again on our boat, as he thought the Indians, despairing of routing us from our strong hold, had abandoned the field. But Bob Harris thought it most prudent to wait until dark before we made a move, as he said it was probable the Indians were still in the vicinity, and were keep ing quiet for the purpose of decoying us from our entrenchment. The rest of us coincided in opinion with Capt. Bob, so we remained quietly behind our breastwork, satisfying our hunger with some ‘hard tack’and raw pork, which one of the boys brought from the boat. As soon as night came on (and for tunately for us it was a very dark one,) Capt. Bob detailed Jimmy Dunn and myself to go on board the Indian raft that had lodged at the head of the is land, and bring off as “trophies of our victory” the guns and accoutrements we had observed lying upon it. Jimmy and I accordingly went to the spot where the raft had lodged, and going on board, gathered up all the guns and accoutie ments we could find, six rifles and as many shot pouches and powder horns. The two dead Indians were still lying upon it, stretched out upon their backs, looking hideously ferocious in the dim light, with their grinning teeth and paint ed faces. We hurried back to the boat with our trophies,and all got on board as noiseless ly as possible. Pushing her silently out of the little nook that had proved such a ‘ harbor of refuge’ to us, we soon got into the current, and took our way down the river. But we had scarcely gone a hundred yards when the bank on our right was lit up with the flashing of guns, and the woods around echoed with the appalling yells of the Indians. The bullets whistled in all directions about us, but none of us were struck- The darkness of the night alone saved us from inevitable destruction. Had wo attempted to pass the Indians in day light we would all undoubtedly have been killed. “Give way, boys,” shouted Capt. Bob, as the Indians opened fire upon us, “and we’ll soon be out of reach of the ras cals.” But we needed no incentive to do this, and tugged at the oars lustily un til we were safe beyond the bullets ol t he enemy. “ Boys,” said Bob to us, after we had slackened our speed, on finding that we were out of reach of the Indians, “we have not done much in the way of hunt ing this time, but we have had a glori ous ‘ scrimmage’ with the Indians, and that will make us famous through all the country round for at least two con secutive weeks. I wouldn’t have miss ed it for any consideration. What do you say, Jimmy?” “Well, Capt. Bob,” said Jimmy, “ since I have come safe out of it, with my scalp still on the top of my head, I am very well satisfied, but whenever you propose taking another ‘camp hunt’ on the head of the Wakulla, I wish it distinctly understood that I am ‘ out of the ring.’ Hunting is one thing, and I’m very fond of it, and fighting Indians all day from a mud flat is another thing, and I have ‘ sour ed upon it’ entirely—that’s all I have to say on the subject.” In two or three hours we reached the mouth of the river, where we exhibited our ‘ trophies’ to a gaping crowd, in coroboration of the story we told of our fight with the Indians. As Capt. Bob