hung
at his side a handful of little balls of paper about the size of a
musket bullet, which he began to distribute among the savages. We had
observed Jack making several hundreds of these, the night previous to
this memorable day, out of one or two newspapers we had carried along
with us for wadding; but he would not at that time tell us what he was
going to do with them. The negroes received this novel species of
ammunition with deep interest and surprise. Never having seen printed
paper before, or, in all probability, paper of any kind, they were much
taken up with the mysterious characters imprinted thereon, and no doubt
regarded these as the cause of the supernatural power which the bullets
were supposed to possess.

"Remember," said Jack, "when these are discharged at the enemy, I do not
say that they will kill, but I do say that they will cause the enemy to
fly. Only, be assured that everything depends on your _obedience_. And
if one single stone, or nail, or hard substance is put in along with
these bullets, the chief part of my plans will be frustrated."

It was quite evident, from the expression of their sable countenances,
that the idea of the bullets not killing was anything but agreeable.
They were too deeply impressed, however, with Jack's power, and too far
committed in the enterprise, and generally too much overwhelmed with
mingled surprise and perplexity, to offer any objection.

"Now," said Jack in conclusion, "you may go and eat well. To-night,
when it grows dark, hold yourselves in readiness to go forth in _dead
silence_. Mind that: not a sound to be uttered until the signal, `Hip,
hip, hip!' is given."

"And," added Peterkin, in an undertone to Makarooroo, "tell them that
King Jambai expects that every man will do his duty."

This remark was received with a shout and a frightful display of white
teeth, accompanied by a tremendous flourish of guns, bows, and spears.

There was something quite awful, not to say picturesque, in this
displaying of teeth, which took place many times during the course of
the above proceedings. You looked upon a sea of black ebony balls, each
having two white dots with black centres near the top of it. Suddenly
the ebony balls were gashed across, and a sort of storm, as it were, of
deep red mingled with pure white swept over the dark cloud of heads
before you, and vanished as quickly as it had appeared, only to
reappear, however, at the next stroke of humour