water flash as the
paddles beat regularly, and the men sent their craft along till they
swept round the headland west of the bay and were gone.

"Oh, uncle!" I cried, as soon as we were safe.

"It is very hard, Nat, my boy," he said sadly; "but it might have been
worse. We have our lives and a little ammunition; but the scoundrels
have wrecked my expedition."

"And we have no boat, uncle."

"Nor anything else, Nat," he said cheerfully. "But we have plenty of
pluck, my boy, and Ebo will help us to make a canoe to take us to the
Moluccas, where I dare say I can get some merchant to fit us out again.
Well, Ebo," he cried, "all gone!"

"Man--kill--gone," repeated Ebo, shaking his spear angrily, and then he
kept repeating the word Owe--boat, as we went down to the shore.

"Let's see if they have left anything in the hut, Nat," said my uncle.
"We must have food even if we are stripped."

We turned through the bushes and made our way into the little
arbour-like spot beside the stream where Ebo had built our hut beneath a
splendid tree, when, to our utter astonishment, we found that the
savages had not seen our little home, but had caught sight of the boat,
landed and carried it off, without attempting to look for its owners.
No one had been there since we left, that was evident; and pleased as we
were, our delight was more than equalled by Ebo's, for laying down our
specimens, this time more carefully, he refreshed himself with a dance
before lighting a fire, where a capital meal was prepared, which we
thankfully enjoyed as we thought of the benefits we received by having
the forethought to carry everything out of the boat and placing it under
cover for fear of rain.

The savages then had taken nothing but our boat, and the next thing was
to set to work to construct another, for my uncle said he should not
feel satisfied to stay where we were longer, without some means of
retreat being ready for an emergency.

Before lying down we managed to ask Ebo what he thought of our being
able to build a canoe that would carry us and our luxuries. For reply
he laughed, pointed to our axes and to the trees, as if to say, What a
foolish question when we have all the material here!

I was so wearied, and slept so heavily, that I had to be awakened by my
uncle long after the sun was up.

"Come, Nat," he said, "I want you to make a fire. Ebo has gone off
somewhere."

I made the fire, after which we had a hasty breakfast, a