Something touched them, and he grasped wildly, clawing at the yielding support. Joy! It was a branch. He hung on with all his remaining strength, and in another instant Ephraim had made fast and dragged him into the boat. For some minutes he lay down there, unable to speak or move, but gradually, as the Grizzly rubbed and chafed him, the power came back to his limbs and the sense to his brain. ‘Thet’s well!’ cried Ephraim, overjoyed. ‘Oh, Luce, it made me sick ter see ye so done. By time! ye did thet pull in grand style. Air ye all right now?’ Lucius nodded. ‘‘Cause ef ye air,’ went on Ephraim, ‘I hev got an idee. Ye see thar, right in front er us, is a cave. It’s not very deep. Fact is, it’s nuthin’ but a hole in the bank, but it’ll serve fer a restin’-place till we kin git some notion er what is goin’ ter happen. Git up thar. I’ll send up the things.’ Standing on the seat of the boat, the hole was just on a level with Luce’s chest, and with a little assistance from Ephraim he easily climbed in. The Grizzly had passed up the clothes, the rifle, and the two belts, when something arrested his attention. He listened intently for a moment, and then clinging to the floor of the hole, gave a backward kick with his feet that sent the boat spinning out into the stream, and sprang in beside Lucius. Scarcely had he done so, when a loud voice, not far away, shouted exultantly: ‘I see him, corporal! There he is!’ [Illustration] CHAPTER XII. A DUEL IN THE DARK. As this alarming shout rang in their ears, Lucius, forgetting his fatigue, sprang to the mouth of the hole and made as if he would dive again into the water. But Ephraim held him back. ‘Steady, Luce!’ he exclaimed. ‘Lie low! It’s the boat he sees—not us.’ Thus restrained, Lucius withdrew, shivering with cold, to the farthest extremity of the hole, where he proceeded to rub himself down and dress. Ephraim, meanwhile, took his stand at the entrance, and listened intently for any indications of the whereabouts of the enemy. They were not long in coming, for presently footsteps resounded on the bank above, and a voice eagerly questioned: ‘Where? Where did you see him?’ ‘Well, I didn’t exactly see him,’ answered the first voice, much to Ephraim’s relief; ‘but there’s the boat, and I guess he won’t be far off.’ The corporal strained his eyes after the boat through the gathering darkness. ‘I guess it’s empty,’ he said after a long look. ‘However, squad, attention! At one hundred yards, fire a volley! Ready! Present! Fire!’ Bang! crash! splinter! sputter! as some of the balls struck the boat, and the rest fell like hailstones in the water round about her. Ephraim chuckled softly, and rubbed his hands together in delight. ‘We air jest ez well out er thet, Luce,’ he whispered. ‘I reckon wan or two er them Yanks kin shoot straight.’