"You understand, lads. These will be spare arms. Keep them in reserve if possible, so as to check the fellows when they make a rush. Now do you all understand? "You explain it to your men, Dominique. "Now we will go on again, and at the double. It will be as much as those fellows can do to keep up with us in this thick wood." Ten minutes passed. Then there was a loud shout and the blowing of a deep horn on their left, followed by a yell from the wood on both sides. "To the right," Frank shouted, and the party ran in among the trees. "Get in among that undergrowth with Anna," he said to Bertha. "Gather there, Dominique, with your men. We shall want you directly. They are sure to make a rush at first. "Now, lads, one of you take that tree; the other the one to the right," and he placed himself behind one between them. On glancing round he saw that George had already posted his two men, and had taken up his station between them. "All hands kneel down," he said. "These bushes will hide us from their sight. If we stand up we may be hit by shots from behind." A moment later there was a general discharge of firearms round them, and then some forty negroes rushed at them. "On your feet now, men," Frank shouted. "Take steady aim and bring down a man with each shot." A cheer broke from the sailors. Four shots were fired from Frank's side, and five from George Lechmere's, and with them came the cracks of Frank's revolver, followed almost directly afterwards by those of the pistols carried by the men, and George Lechmere's revolver. Scarce a shot missed. Ten of the negroes fell, and those attacking from the right turned and bolted among the trees. The negroes on the left, however, inspired by the roaring of the horns and the shrieking yells of the Obi man, came on with greater determination and dashed across the path. "Now, Dominique, at them!" Frank shouted, as with the two sailors he rushed across. The numbers now were not very uneven. Of the twenty negroes on that side, five had fallen under the musketry and pistol fire, and two others were wounded; and as Frank's party and the blacks fell upon them they hesitated. The struggle was not doubtful for a moment. Six of the negroes were cut down, and the rest fled. "Don't pursue them, men," Frank shouted; and the sailors at once drew off, but Dominique and his black boatmen still pursued hotly, overtaking and cutting down three more of their assailants. "All is over for the present," Frank said, going to the spot where Bertha and Anna were crouching. "Not one of us is hurt as far as I know, and we have accounted for sixteen or seventeen of these rascals." Bertha got up. She was a little pale, but perfectly calm and quiet. "It is horrid, being hidden like that when you are all fighting, Frank," she said, reproachfully. "We were hidden, too, till they came at us," he said; "and very lucky it was, for some of us would probably have been hit, bad shots though they are."