sell."

The captain started and looked excited.

"Oh no, aunt," cried Norman; "I don't think he was a bad sort of chap."

"See how honest he was about the `tickpence,'" said Rifle.

"I don't think he was the sort of fellow to steal," whispered Tim to
Hester.

"I believe that you have hit the right nail on the head, aunt," said the
captain; and the boys looked across at one another, thought of the grub
feast, and felt hurt that the black, whose many childish ways had won a
kind of liking for him, should be suspected of theft.

"Well," said the captain; "it will act as a warning. Bought wit is
better than taught wit. No more black fellows anywhere near our camp.
It is my own fault. I was warned about them. They have none of the
instincts of a civilised man, and will kill or steal, or be guilty of
any crime. So understand here, boys, don't make friends with any more."

"Coo-ee!"

The cry was far away, but it came clearly enough through the night air.
Then again, "Coo-ee!"

"The blacks," cried the captain. "Quick! They see the fire, and think
it's the camp of friends. Away from it every one. Guns."

There was a quick movement. The ladies were got under shelter, and the
men and boys took refuge in the shadow cast by the bushes, all feeling
that a white in the full light of the fire would be an easy mark for a
spear.

The captain gave his orders briefly that there was to be no firing
unless the blacks attacked them, and then they waited, Rifle suffering
all the time as he crouched down in the scrub from an intense desire to
answer each "coo-ee" as it came nearer and nearer, and now evidently
from the track they had made in their journey that day.

"It is not a large party," whispered the captain to Artemus, who was
close to him.

"Only one, I think, uncle, for it's the same man who keeps coo-eeing."

"Impossible to say yet," was whispered back by his uncle. "Feel
frightened?"

"Well, I hardly know," said the boy. "I don't feel at all comfortable,
and keep on wishing they'd gone."

"Naturally, my boy. I shall fire a shot or two over their heads when
they come close in. That will scare them, I expect."

"Coo-ee!" came from the darkness before them, but they could see nothing
now, for all near the ground and among the trees was almost black,
though overhead the stars were coming out fast, and eight or ten feet
above the bushes it was comparatively light.

"Coo-ee!" came again from apparently