he sea, and defended on its
inland and less precipitous side by barriers of stakes. The noise made
by the engine as the aeroplane swept down towards the village first
drew all the inhabitants from their huts into the open enclosure, and
then sent them scampering back with shrieks of alarm as they saw the
strange object in the air. A glance sufficed to assure Smith, as he
wheeled round the village, that it contained no white men, unless they
had been taken inside the huts, which was unlikely. Without loss of
time he steered as nearly as he could towards the point at which he
had diverged from his settled course, and returned to the camp,
pausing once to examine a small tract where the trees were somewhat
thinner, allowing him to see the ground beneath.

Once more he started, steering now in a more westerly direction. There
were several clear spaces along this radius, and Smith flew over them
slowly, more than once wheeling about to make sure that his eyes had
missed nothing. But at these times he saw no human beings, nothing but
the wild animals of the forest, huge pigs being diminished to the size
of rabbits, and dingoes to the size of mice. These scurried away when
they heard the noise of the engine, and Smith hovered around for a
time to see if the flight of the animals attracted the attention of
men, but in vain.

Having again covered ten miles, as nearly as he could judge, he swung
round to the southwest. A minute or two later he came to the largest
open space he had yet seen, clear of undergrowth as well as of trees.
There were no huts upon it, and at first he saw no sign of men; but
all at once Rodier cried that there was a ladder against one of the
trees on the farther side of the clearing. Flying towards it, and
descending until the aeroplane was level with the tree-top, Smith was
amazed to see a brown woman, with a brown baby under her arm,
scuttling down the ladder towards the ground. At the same time he
became aware that there were ladders against many of the trees in the
neighbourhood, and women and children were descending by them, showing
all the marks of terror. He had come upon a collection of the curious
tree-houses, sixty or seventy feet from the ground, which some of the
islanders inhabit. The terrified people when they reached the ground
fled into the forest. There was no man among them, which led Smith to
suspect that the men were either hunting for food, or were perhaps
fighting with the castaway