rum
puncheon as can be. Eating too much makes people as stupid as drinking;
and knowing what I do, I wishes I was in Africa and not here."

"Knowing what you do, Jem?"

"Yes, Mas' Don, knowing what I do. It's what you know too. I can see
you do."

Don shuddered.

"Don't, Jem, don't; it's too horrid even to think about."

"Yes, dear lad, but we must think about it. These here people's used to
it, and done it theirselves, I daresay; and they don't seem to mind; but
we do. Ah, Mas' Don, I'd rather ha' been a sailor all my life, or been
had by the sharks when we was swimming ashore; for I feel as if I can't
stand this. There, listen!"

There was a sound of shouting and singing from the beach below, and one
of the guards tossed up his spear in a sleepy way, and shouted too, but
only to subside again into a sluggish state of torpidity.

"Why, Mas' Don, by-and-by they'll all be asleep, and if we tried, you
and me might get our arms and legs undone, and take a spear apiece, and
kill the lot. What do you say?"

"The same as you will, if you think, Jem," replied Don. "No."

"No, it is, Mas' Don, of course. Englishmen couldn't do such a thing as
that."

"But only let us have a fair chance at them again, Jem, and I don't
think we shall feel very sorry if we slay a few."

"Sorry?" said Jem, between his teeth. "I mean a hundred of 'em at
least, as soon as we can get away; and get away we will."

They sat listening till the horrible feast below was at an end, and
everything became so silent that they concluded that the enemy must be
asleep, and began to wonder that the prisoners should all crouch
together in so apathetic a state. But all at once, when everything
seemed most still, and half the prisoners were dozing, there came the
heavy trampling of feet; the guards roused up, and in the dim light of
the late evening, the bonds which secured the captives' feet were
loosened, and, like a herd of cattle, they were driven down from the
platform upon which the _pah_ was constructed, and along the slope to
the sands, where the canoes rode lightly on the swell.

Into these they were forced to climb, some getting in with alacrity,
others slowly and painfully; two or three falling helplessly in the
water, and then, half drowned, being dragged in over the side.

"Not a bit sorry I killed some of 'em," muttered Jem. "They arn't men,
Mas' Don, but savage beasts."

It did not take long, for there was plenty of room