galloping furiously along the shore!

They were our own, which, frightened, and perhaps neglected by the
driver, had broken away from the clearing, and now came rushing along
the bank.

At the same moment, the two men reappeared, and this time they were
running with all speed. Doubtless they had discovered our encampment,
and had at once suspected that there were police hidden in the woods.
They realized that they were watched, they were followed, they would
be seized. So they dashed recklessly down the ravine, and after
loosening the cable, they would doubtless endeavor to leap aboard.
The "Terror" would disappear with the speed of a meteor, and our
attempt would be wholly defeated!

"Forward," I cried. And we scrambled down the sides of the ravine to
cut off the retreat of the two men.

They saw us and, on the instant, throwing down their bundles, fired
at us with revolvers, hitting John Hart in the leg.

We fired in our turn, but less successfully. The men neither fell nor
faltered in their course. Reaching the edge of the creek, without
stopping to unloose the cable, they plunged overboard, and in a
moment were clinging to the deck of the "Terror."

Their captain, springing forward, revolver in hand, fired. The ball
grazed Wells.

Nab Walker and I seizing the cable, pulled the black mass of the boat