ose others were within, and not be aware of how far superior they
were in force to us. As they advanced they discovered our brush-turkey
pen, and, greatly to our distress, some of them instantly stooped over,
and began to seize the birds, and to fasten them by their legs round
their waists. Others rushed at the body of the kangaroo, which hung by
the legs to the branch of a tree, and immediately began cutting it up,
each man appropriating a portion.

"I hope they will be content with robbing us, and go away," said Oliver.

"I am afraid not," I answered. "They will soon find how few we are to
oppose them, and will not be content until they carry off everything we
possess, even if they do not kill us. They mean mischief, depend on
that."

The savages having searched about, and finding nothing else on which to
lay their hands, approached still nearer our hut.

"If they attack us we will sell our lives dearly," I said to Oliver.

"I am afraid we must do so," he answered. "I wish to fight for your
sake, though for myself I scarcely think I should do so."

Thinking that possibly, after all, they might go away without further
molesting us, we lifted up our ladder and shut the door. Scarcely had
we done so, than we felt the house violently shaken, and on looking out
once more I found that a number of men had got hold of the posts on
which it rested, and seemed attempting to shake it down. They shook,
and shook, and shook; but it was so strongly secured in the ground, that
their united strength could not pull it down. All the time they were
shouting and crying to each other, every now and then giving way to
hoarse laughter, which occasionally broke into shrieks of merriment.
"Bery good fun for dem, but bad for us," observed Macco, as the violent
shocks made us expect every instant to be hurled to the ground. At
length they stopped, and there was an ominous silence. We felt as
people do during the lull of a hurricane, when they know it will come
back with tenfold force. Presently we heard the savages crying out
louder than ever, and directly afterwards thin wreaths of smoke began to
ascend through the flooring. They were about, we dreaded, to burn us
out. Soon the crackling flames ascended. We had no help for it; so,
throwing open the door, we sprang to the ground. We were each of us
instantly surrounded by a number of savages. One black fellow, with a
huge head of frizzled-out hair, and a dark heavy club in