'What?'

'Some sound--I don't know what.'

'I heard nothing.'

They went on.

'There again!' said Hoole, a few seconds later. He looked round apprehensively. A slight groan came from Meek.

'What's the matter?' asked Trentham in a whisper, sharply. His nerves were a little on edge.

'I seed a face, sir,' murmured the man, staring into the gloom.

'Nonsense! It's too dark to see anything. We 'll stop in a few minutes, when it's quite dark; but we must get as far as we can from where we saw that native.'

They had not advanced more than a dozen yards when Hoole made a sudden dash among the bushes. The rest halted, drawing quick breaths. He came back after half a minute's absence.

'I distinctly heard a sound there,' he explained. 'No; it's not jumpiness. But I couldn't see any one or anything. I vote we stop, Trentham. We shall lose our bearings utterly if we go too far into the forest, where we can't see the sun to-morrow.'

'I think you 're right. Now to find trees we can climb, and big enough to give us safe perches. Grinson, put down your bag and have a look round.'

The boatswain had just risen from stooping to the ground; the others were standing by, looking up for broad forks which promised security, when with a sudden _whish_ that took them all aback the brushwood around them parted and a score or more of dusky natives burst into the ring.

Before they could raise a finger in self-defence they were thrown headlong, and sinewy hands were knotting pliant tendrils about their arms and legs, while others held them down. In a few minutes the binding was finished. The captors collected, and jabbered away among themselves. One of them had opened the bag, and was munching a biscuit.

The bag was wrenched from his hands; and the four prisoners, lying on their backs, watched the gleeful savages consume their whole stock of provisions to the last crumb.

[Ill.u.s.tration: A SCORE OF DUSKY NATIVES BURST INTO THE RING.]

CHAPTER VI

THE TOTEM

'They won't eat us now, will they, Mr. Grinson?' said Meek in a whisper, hopefully.

Grinson swore.

'Not after them biscuits, Mr. Grinson?' Meek persisted.

'Stow it, can't you?' growled Grinson. 'This ain't a time for jokes.'

Meek was so much astonished at being accused of joking that his jaw dropped, and he eyed the boatswain sadly. His expression turned to anguish as he listened to the low-toned conversation between Hoole and Trentham.

'We 're fairly in the cart,' said the former. 'See any way out?'

'No. We 're still alive. They might have killed us--those spears!'

'Better if they had, perhaps. Waiting is the deuce!'

'If we could only speak to them!'

'Try right now. Perhaps some of them know pidgin.'

'You boys belongina this place?' began Trentham in loud tones. 'You savvy English fella? English he like him black fella man too much, come this place look out black fella man, no fighting black fella man.'

The natives had stopped jabbering.

'You savvy all same what English fella man he say?' Trentham asked.

There was no answer. The Papuans, squatting in a line, gave an inarticulate grunt, then resumed their talk.

'No good!' said Trentham. 'They evidently haven't been to the ports.

Very little chance for us with savages of the interior.'

'What are they waiting for, then? Look, that's the fellow we saw a while ago.'

The young native whom they had seen examining their tracks came out of the gloom, stood before the squatting men, and spoke to them. They stared at the four prisoners and grunted; the speaker disappeared among the trees.

'He 's left them on guard, and gone to report at headquarters,' said Trentham. 'A brief respite.'

'Till the rising of the moon, I suppose. Well, old boy, I hope it 'll be short--and both together.'

Trentham was silent. He had had many anxious moments since the Raider's first sh.e.l.l had flown screaming over the deck; but it was with a shock of a totally different kind that he now found himself looking with open eyes upon the imminence of death. To a man in health death is unrealisable. But he remembered those hideous figures on the beach, the pig's squeal, and he shuddered.

There was barely light enough to distinguish the savages from their surroundings; but it seemed to him, from their general appearance, that they were of the same tribe as the dancers--possibly they were the dancers themselves. In that case, baulked of one victim, they were only too likely to make the most of the four who had now fallen into their hands. It was not to be hoped that they would relax their watchfulness.

Would their leader return at the rising of the moon?

Complete darkness enwrapped them. The blacks talked on endlessly, breaking at times into boisterous laughter.

'Have you tried the knots, Grinson?' Trentham asked.

'Did that first go off, sir,' replied the boatswain in doleful accents.

'I couldn't have tied 'em better myself.'

Each of the prisoners had in fact already wriggled and strained at his bonds, with total unsuccess.

They lay silent again. Presently Grinson let out a torrent of expletives with something like his old vigour. The others questioned him.

'Skeeters!' he cried furiously. 'They 're all over me, and I can't rub my nose.'

Hitherto insects had troubled them little, and the advent of mosquitoes was likely to enhance their physical discomfort.

'I guess we 're near water,' remarked Hoole; 'perhaps that stream we saw running into the bay. Have the mosquitoes bit you, Trentham?'

'Not yet.'