Wherein I underrated his skill, and it nearly cost me dear.
Suddenly, with hardly a movement of his body, his arm snapped
forward. I ducked to one side instinctively and heard the spear
whistle past my ear with the speed of a bullet, so close that the
butt of the shaft struck the side of my head a glancing blow and
toppled me over.
I sprang quickly to my feet, and barely in time, for I saw the
Inca stoop over, pick up another spear from the raft, and draw it
back above his head. At the same moment the second raft drew up
alongside, and as I fell to the ground flat on my face I heard
the two spears whistle shrewdly over me.
At that game they were my masters; it would have been folly to
have tried conclusions with them with their own weapons. As the
spears clattered on the ground thirty feet away I sprang to my
feet and ran to the farther side of the ledge, where I had before
noticed some loose stones in a corner.
With two or three of these in my hands I ran back to the water's
edge, meeting two more of the spears that came twisting at me
through the air, one of which tore the skin from my left
shoulder.
A quick glance at the crevice as I passed showed me Harry
fighting at its entrance; they were at us there, too.
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