For a moment Lettice was nearly paralyzed with fright, then she recovered her wits, and, grabbing the gun, she pointed it at James’s assailant. The gun was heavy, and her hands trembled with the weight of it. Suppose she should shoot wildly and kill her brother. With a swift, silent prayer that James might be spared, she took aim, fired, and dropped the gun. “Hand me the pistol,” she cried to Lutie. “Run, Jamie, now’s your chance!” she shouted, for one of the men holding James, being wounded in the shoulder by the shot Lettice had fired, had dropped his prisoner’s arm; and James, with a wrench, tore himself from the remaining hold upon him. [Illustration: _“Come on,” she yelled._] He had too often shared in the athletic sports common upon holidays not to be a good runner, and he was but an instant in reaching the edge of the water; dashing in, he swam around to the other side of the vessel, which was slowly drifting farther and farther out, Lettice meanwhile standing resolutely pointing her pistol at his pursuers. “Lutie,” she cried, without turning her head, “pick up that axe, and if any one dares to touch this boat, brain him. You hear me?” Lutie, though quaking with fear, gained courage from the attitude of her young mistress and picked up the axe. “Come on,” she yelled. “Come on, yuh po’ white trash, yuh! Jes’ lemme ketch one o’ yuh techin’ mah young mistis, an’ I’ll lay dis axe ’bout yo neck lak yuh was a chicken fo’ brilin’. Yuh ole good-fo’-nothin’ tu’key buzza’ds, yuh!” She stood with axe raised, and the two defenders of the little vessel did present such a formidable aspect that the men fell back. Only one or two were prepared to fire. They had been disturbed in the taking of an afternoon nap, and had previously divested themselves of all superfluous accoutrements. Therefore, though one or two bullets whizzed across the bows of the vessel as she retreated, not one touched the occupants. Slowly, farther and farther out the little craft floated, and finally James, who had scrambled aboard, was setting sail for the opposite shore, and told Lettice they were beyond danger. “I feel like a cowardly wretch,” he said, “to run from the foe at the very moment you needed me for defence. What would have happened to us all, but for my brave little sister?” And then Lettice sank down and began to cry hysterically, thus demanding Lutie’s administrations; and for some time the maid found herself fully occupied in soothing her young mistis. “Law, Miss Letty, yuh is safe,” she repeated. “Huccome yuh cry when ’taint nobody daid?” “I want to go home, I want to go home! Jamie, take me home!” Lettice wailed. “I will, sis. We are getting there as fast as we can. Don’t you see we have turned about and are going back?” “And you won’t go to meet the packet? Say you won’t.” “Never mind about that now. If I do go, it will be on horseback, and I will go around by the road; so you needn’t worry about that.”