That was the difficulty. The enemy remained all the while between them and the lagoon, and in that direction safety lay. Even a swift boat such as the motor launch had proved herself to be could not slip by easily, unless she risked running so close into the other as to place her crew in danger of those terrible spears; but Sam seemed fully to have realized the difficulty, and at Jim's command he brought the boat heeling round again. Hardly three lengths separated the combatants when he swung the wheel again, and, driven by her fast-rotating propeller, the launch shot obliquely up the stream, leaving the other heading helplessly for the bank. Tom roared with delight, brandishing his rifle overhead, while Ching giggled and simpered as if he looked upon the thing as a glorious joke. But Jim's face was set and stern. He had been so close when the vessel turned that he had been able to look into the eyes of the natives; and the ferocity of their appearance, their terrible shrieks and howls, and the cloud of spears which they had discharged brought realistically to him the depth of their danger. Within a foot of his hand a spear stood quivering, the blade sunk deeply in the woodwork. It needed but a glance to tell him that the weapon was capable of dealing death to anyone. However, they were out of range now, and the time had come to practise a further manoeuvre. Jim waved his hand in Sam's direction.
"Over," he shouted. "Let her rip for the lagoon."
Meanwhile the course of the other launch had been hurriedly arrested; for the ruffian aboard her was a clever skipper, and handled the craft with decision. The waters churned into white foam beneath her rudder, and before Jim and his friend had completed their slanting run upstream the rascal had his boat running rapidly astern in an effort to intercept them.
"Gee, he'll do it, too!" shouted Tomkins. "Say, sir, we'll have to charge them. But that would mean the end of everything for them and for us."
Jim shook his head emphatically. "You're asking for a funeral," he said bluntly. "We've got to dodge 'em, even if we play at the game for the rest of the morning. Steady there, Sam; do anything rather than let them get within close range of us. Boys, if only you could pick off that rascal who commands them we would soon make an end of the others."
