"Fifty at least, so the men say," replied Panton, recovering himself.

"But are you at all hurt?"

"Only scratched and done up. I feel so weak. But what are you going to do?"

"Crawl back through the edge of the forest till we are near the brig, and then wait till night--if we escape notice. Seems the best way."

"And then," said Oliver, "if they make an attack on the brig, we can take them in flank or rear, perhaps scare them off."

"Beg pardon, sir," said Smith. "It's only a sort of a kind o'

disgestion like as you can do or no, but them beggars has left their boats. How would it be for us to go down to the sh.o.r.e and grab one and sink t'other? Then we should be free to sail away where we liked."

"Without provisions, compa.s.s, or water?" said Panton, drily.

"And leave our friends in the lurch?" said Drew.

"O' course," said Smith, scratching his head. "That's the wust o' my dis--suggestions; there's allus a screw loose or suthin' wrong about 'em, so as they won't hold water."

"Allus," said Wriggs, solemnly.

"Deal you know about it," growled Smith. "Don't you get a shovin' your oar in that how. P'raps you've got a better hidear? 'Cause if you have, let it off at once for the gents to hear. I on'y said what I thought."

"Quite right, Smith," interposed Lane. "Don't be cross about it, because the idea will not work."

"Oh, no, sir, I ar'n't cross and I ar'n't a-goin' to be cross, but I don't like it when Billy Wriggs will be so jolly clever and get thinking as he knows every blessed thing as there is in life. He don't propose any good things, do he?"

"No, Tommy, I don't," said Wriggs, quietly. "It ar'n't in my way o'

business. Ropes and swabbing and pullin' a oar or setting of a sail's more in my line, mate."

"That will do," said Oliver, firmly, and somehow, though he was yet weak and rather helpless from the injury he had received, he dropped at once into a way of taking the lead, unchallenged by either of his elder companions.

"Now, then," he continued, "is there any better plan? Silence! Then we'll try the one we have before us, and follow cautiously in the savages' track."

"How do you feel, Lane?" said Panton in a whisper, as they two stood together during a halt.

"Tired and hot."

"So do I, but I didn't mean that. Do you feel fighty?"

"Fighty? No; not at all. Rather, as if I should like to run away."

"That's frank," said Panton.

"Well, it's the truth. I'm weak and done up, and I don't think I'm one of the fighting sort. It doesn't seem nice either to shoot at human beings, but I suppose we shall have to."

"Yes, it's their lives or ours, my lad; but as you say, it's not nice.

You won't think me a coward, will you, if I tell you that I feel just the same as you do?"

"Hush! don't talk," whispered Drew, who was a little way in front, keeping a sharp look-out, "I don't think they are far ahead. Ready to go on?"

"Yes," said the others in a breath, and the toilsome march was resumed, Drew, as the lightest and most active, going in front, the two sailors following, and Oliver Lane and Panton, as the weakest of the party, bringing up the rear.

The sun beat down with tremendous force, but the heat was forgotten in the excitement, as, forced by circ.u.mstances to imitate the savages, the little party crept cautiously on, taking advantage of every bit of cover and keeping well in under the shade of the trees at the edge of the forest. At any moment it was felt that they might come upon the rear of the enemy, when, if undiscovered, the aim was to remain in hiding. If seen, Drew proposed to wait until there was any attack, and then fire; the others to follow, taking their cue from him, and without hurrying, following one another, so as to give those who fired first time to reload and continue a steady fusillade. This, it was hoped, would drive the savage crew into confusion and enable the party to get on to where they would be opposite to the brig, when they could rush across without running the risk of being fired at by their friends, who would have had fair warning of their approach and be ready to help them.

These were their plans, but everything depended upon the Papuans, who had unaccountably disappeared.

For it seemed to all that they ought to have been overtaken some time before, whereas they had for some time seen no sign of them, nor heard so much as a whisper.

All at once, when they were still quite a mile from the brig, and while Oliver was being tortured by opportunities for acquiring magnificent specimens of b.u.t.terfly and bird of which he could not avail himself, Drew stopped short, and let the others come close up to where he was crouching beneath the huge leaves of a dwarf palm.

"I dare not go any further," he whispered, "for I feel certain that we are walking right into a trap."

"Why?" asked Oliver. "You say you have neither seen nor heard anything of them."

"I can't tell you, but somehow I feel as if they are lying in ambush, waiting for us, and I can't lead you on to your death."

These words acted like a chill to all, and for the full s.p.a.ce of a minute there was utter silence. Then Oliver spoke.

"I feel so weak and helpless, that I do not like to make proposals," he said, "but how would it be to try and play boldly?"

"How?" asked Panton.

"By taking the initiative and attacking."

"Madness," said Drew.

"I don't know that. Our shots would let Mr Rimmer know that we are in danger. It is too far-off to make him hear the boatswain's whistle. As soon as he knew he would come to our help, and we should have the enemy then between two fires. They would be scared, and either throw down their arms or take to the woods."

There was silence again after these words, and then Panton spoke.

"Won't do, Lane," he said. "You speak as if you were as strong as Smith or Wriggs here, and all the time you are as helpless and weak as I."

"Yes," said Drew. "It is like being only three to attack fifty."

Oliver was silent, for he felt the force of his companion's remark.

"Like to send me or Billy Wriggs on ahead, gentlemen?" said Smith.

"What for, man?" said Panton, impatiently.

"I don't quite zackly know, sir, but I've got a brother as is a soger, and he was a tellin' me that when they fight the n.i.g.g.e.rs up in the hills, where they shuts themselves up strong behind stone walls, with lots o' big ones ready to chuck down on them as comes to attack, they sends some one fust, and calls him a f'lorn hope. I don't quite know what good it is, but I'll go and be a f'lorn hope if you like, or so would Billy Wriggs here. P'r'aps he'd do b.u.t.ter, sir, for he's a more mizz'able-looking chap than me."

Panton smiled.

"It's very good and brave of you, my lad," he said.

"Oh, don't you make no mistake about that, sir," said Smith, shaking his head. "I'm only a sailor, and not a soger, and not brave at all."

"Speak the truth, Tommy," said Wriggs, in a tone of protest.