e being held, though I could see that at a movement on our
part we should have been beaten to death or thrust through.

At last, after an interminable speech, the big chief seemed to grow
hoarse, and the blacks' yells were quicker and louder.

Then there was a terrible pause, and a dozen sturdy blacks sprang
towards us as regularly as if they had been drilled, each man holding a
spear, and I felt that the end had come.

I was too stupid with my hurt to do more than stare helplessly round,
seeing the bright sunshine, the glittering sea, and the beautiful waving
trees. Then my head began to throb, and felt as if hot irons were being
thrust through it.

I closed my eyes, the agony was so great; and then I opened them again,
for all the savages were yelling and clapping their hands. Two men had
seized me, and one of them had his head bandaged, and in a misty way I
recognised him as one of the poor wretches to whom I had given water.
He and the others, who were easily known by the doctor's patches of
sticking-plaster, were talking with all their might; and then all the
blacks began yelling and dancing about, brandishing their spears and
clubs, frantic apparently with the effect of the injured men's words.

"They ar'n't going to kill us, my lad," said the captain then; "and look
ye there, they are going to feast the doctor."

For the latter was regularly hustled off from among us by a party of
blacks, led by two of the sticking-plastered fellows, while two others
squatted down smiling at us and rubbing their chests.

"Are we to be spared, then?" I said.

"Spared? Well, I don't know, my lad," said the captain. "They won't be
so ungrateful as to kill us, now these blacks set ashore have turned up
and told 'em what sort of chaps we are; but I don't think they'll free
us. They'll keep us here and make the doctor a physic chief. Eh! go
there? All right; I can understand your fingers better than your
tongue, my lad. Come on, all of you."

This last was in response to the gesticulations of the injured men who
were with us, and soon after, we were all settled down in a very large
open hut, eating fruit and drinking water, every drop of which seemed to
me more delicious than anything I had ever tasted before.

A curious kind of drink was also given to us, but I did not care for it,
and turned to the water again; while the doctor set to work to dress and
strap up my injury as well as he could for the pressure of the