hat came to me," said Oliver, hurriedly. "I don't
want to, but we must."

"Yes," said Drew, firmly, "we must."

"And at once."

"Come on, then," said Drew. "No firing; the butts of our pieces."

Oliver nodded with his brow all in wrinkles, and directly after they
crept to the spot from which Oliver had caught sight of the feet among
the bamboos, and once more, lying flat down, he examined the edge
nearest to him, and then handed the glass to Drew, who scanned the spot
carefully.

"Strange how the insides of the palms of a black's hands and the soles
of his feet grow to be nearly white," whispered Oliver, whose natural
history propensities always came to the front, even in times of peril.

"Yes," said Drew, returning the glass, "and I only wish their hearts
would wear white, too--the murderous wretches. Ready?"

"Yes, both together, and when we are sheltered by the bamboos from the
blacks we must rise, take a few quick steps forward together and club
the wretch."

"Exactly. No one can see what we do for the canes, and all we want to
do is to stun him."

"Agreed."

The next minute they were creeping silently and cautiously over the
sand, keeping their heads well down and gradually nearing the feet,
which, even as they grew closer, remained the only portions of their
enemy's body visible. Every moment they expected to see him take the
alarm, and if he did, and attacked them, they would club him if they
could, but it was fully expected that he would take flight, and in that
case, they determined to follow rapidly, and take their chance of
getting on board.

But the man was so intent upon his duty of watching the brig, that he
did not hear; and as they came on and on there were the toes twitching
and jerking about uneasily, and the bamboos amongst which he lay gently
waved.

Twenty yards, ten yards, five yards, and now brig and savages were
hidden by the giant grass. Oliver turned to Drew, whose face was deadly
pale, and their eyes met. Then together they rose, bending in a sloping
position, held their guns by the barrels, and, keeping step, advanced
foot by foot, raising their pieces as they nearly reached the tall
greeny stems and then paused and hesitated, for the same question was
mentally asked by both,--

"How can we reach to strike this man on the head when we are standing
close to his feet?"

The same idea came again to both: "We must strike twice."

Then a second plan occurred to Oliver,