“Rollo! Rollo!” cried Town., “what means this?” and, springing forward, he severed the head of the savage almost from the body, with a single sweep of the ranger’s saber. “Heavens, Farnesworth! I must be crazy--helping the red demon on the boat to slay me,” he cried; “’tis well you came; I was so excited that I did not know what I was doing.” There was a strange light in the ranger’s eyes, and a strange intonation in his voice. Town. regarded him for a moment with suspicion, and he had it in his mind to accuse him of being a traitor, when his thoughts were drawn away by the desperate struggling going on in the hold below. Town. would have rushed down to assist his old friend, had he not been afraid of assisting the wrong one, in the darkness that prevailed therein. He could do nothing but wait and listen, and hope for the best. He could hear them rolling and struggling in the water; he could hear their heavy, labored breathing, and the dull thud and crash of their fists--even feel the vibratory shock of each blow, and the dull thumping of their bodies against the under side of the deck. Now and then all would become quiet and still, as though no life was there below. Town. felt a chill of terror creep over him, as he thought that the savage may have slain his friend, and was then creeping with the silence of a shadow toward the hatchway, to leap out and murder him. He was relieved of these fears, however, when the struggling, pounding and groaning would begin again with renewed vigor. The dipping of the canoe showed that the combatants were first upon one side and then the other. A hollow moan now and then came from the dark pit, followed by a gurgling shriek or strangling cry. To Town. it sounded like the struggling of two demons away down in the bowels of the earth. For fully half an hour the struggling continued, then all became hushed in a death-like silence--the conflict had ended. Town. and Rollo held their breath in anxious suspense, and listened. But all was silent as the grave below. “My God, Town.! I fear our friend is dead!” cried Rollo. “If one is dead, both are,” replied Town. “Perhaps it would be well for us to look, Town.” Town. went to the opening and gazed down into the hold. But he saw nothing. At the further end of the boat, where the combatants were last heard, it was black as night. He listened again, but heard nothing, he then called the name of his friend--repeated the call, but still there was no response. He started up with an expression of deep sadness upon his face. “They have slain each other, Rollo,” he cried. Rollo uttered an exclamation of sorrow, as he bent upon the tiller. “What will we do with the scout’s body?” he finally asked. “We must remove it from the hold and give it a Christian burial. The savage’s carcass we will bury in the river.” “Hist!--ha-rk!” It was Rollo who uttered the injunction of silence, in a tone scarcely above a whisper. “What is it?” queried Town.