bo
Or
bo

MARTIN RATTLER.

way he encountered one or two savages hastening
after the pursuing party; but he leaped lightly into
the bushes, and lay still till they were past. Then
he ran on, skirted round the village, and pushed into
the woods in an entirely opposite direction from the
one in which he had first set out. Keeping by one
of the numerous tracks that radiated from the village
into the forest, he held on at top speed, until his
progress was suddenly arrested by a stream about
twenty yards broad. It was very deep, and he was
about to plunge in, in order to swim across, when he
observed a small montaria or canoe lying on the
bank. This he launched quickly, and observing that
the river took a bend a little farther down, and
appeared to proceed in the direction he wished to
pursue—namely, away from the Indian village—he
paddled down the rapid stream as fast as he could.
The current was very strong, so that his little bark
flew down it like an arrow, and on more than one
occasion narrowly missed being dashed to pieces on
the rocks which here and there rose above the stream.

In about two hours Barney came to a place where
the stream took another bend to the left, and soon
after the canoe swept out upon the broad river into
which he had at first so nearly plunged. He was

a long way below the fall now, for its sound was in-