Chapter Seven.
What befell the mutineers.
This was rather serious news, and none the less vexatious because it did not take me altogether by surprise. The general opinion had been that all hands were bent upon going ashore, and that the ship would be left at our mercy; but this had certainly not been my own view, for I could not believe that a man of Tonkin’s intelligence—realising, as he must, the enormity of his offence in not only himself breaking into open rebellion against lawful authority but in inciting others to do the same—would be so rashly imprudent as to leave us free, for a period of several hours, to release my men and to take such other steps as might occur to us for the suppression of the mutiny. I had felt quite certain that somebody would be left on board to keep us under supervision and restraint, but I had calculated upon the mutineers considering two men sufficient—and also a little, perhaps, upon the difficulty that would be experienced in inducing more than two, at the utmost, to forego the anticipated enjoyment of a run ashore. But here were four recklessly unscrupulous men, powerful, determined fellows, fully armed, left behind to be dealt with by us; and the only weapons that we could muster among us were my sword and pistols. True, we might be able to lay our hands upon a few belaying-pins; but to attack with such weapons four men armed with pistols meant that somebody would almost certainly get hurt, and that I was most anxious to avoid, if possible. Besides, if it came to a fight, there was always the possibility that the reports of the pistols might be heard by some of the party who had gone ashore, and cause them to hurry back before we were ready to receive them fittingly. Upon enquiry I learned that the four men had arranged themselves, two in the waist—one of them on each side of the ship—and two forward near the fore-rigging, where they could command the entrance of the steerage quarters.
The general, who was brimful of courage, was fuming with indignation at what he termed “the confounded impudence” of the men in presuming to mutiny, strongly advocated an immediate attack with such weapons as came to hand, but I deprecated that step for the reasons already mentioned, and suggested that quite possibly a little consideration and discussion might enable us to hit upon some plan involving rather less risk.
Carter at once suggested that we should try the experiment of plying the men with drink, in the hope of making them intoxicated; and as I considered that this was a case wherein the end justified the means, the plan was at once adopted, Briggs undertaking to carry out to the guard a bottle of especially strong brandy for their delectation. But although they looked at the liquor with very longing eyes, their suspicions at once became aroused, and they roughly ordered him to take it away. And when, instead of doing this, Briggs put down the bottle and left it within their reach, one of them immediately took it up and flung it overboard, where, it may be incidentally mentioned, it was instantly dashed at and swallowed by a shark, to the no small astonishment of those who witnessed the occurrence.
This scheme having failed, another was suggested, this time by the ship’s surgeon. Briggs, the chief steward, had thus far not had his freedom in the least degree interfered with. It was understood that in the discharge of his duty he must necessarily pass to and fro at frequent intervals between the cabin and the cook’s galley—the occupant of which, it may be mentioned, though a surly sort of fellow, and as discontented with everything as ships’ cooks generally are, had declared himself absolutely neutral,—and up to the present he had been allowed to do so without let or hindrance. The doctor’s plan, therefore, was that he was to go forward to the steerage, as though on a professional visit to the wounded men, and Briggs was at the same time to go forward to the galley to discuss with the cook the arrangements for the cuddy dinner that evening. Then, as soon as they were fairly forward, Carter and I were to sally forth together and grapple with the two men in the waist, at the same time whistling to apprise the doctor and Briggs, who, upon hearing the signal, would rush upon and grapple with the two men on the forecastle. The idea was, not to provoke a fight, but to overpower and secure these four men without giving them an opportunity to create an alarm by firing their pistols. We four, therefore, were simultaneously to pinion and hold them until others, coming to our assistance, could help us, if necessary, to secure and disarm them. This plan, we at once decided, was quite promising enough to be worth a trial; and accordingly we forthwith proceeded to put it into execution.
First of all, as arranged, the doctor sallied forth, with a number of bandages and other materials in his hands, and demanded admission to the steerage, which, after some slight demur, was accorded him. Then Briggs, who had been watching the progress of events from the pantry window, sauntered casually forward and stood by the door of the galley, where he proceeded to discuss with the cook the advisability of killing a pig. And finally Carter and I, having allowed a minute or two to elapse, walked calmly out on the main-deck together, smoking a cigar apiece, and laughing and talking as though we were acting in pure absent-mindedness. Our perfect coolness, and apparent want of the slightest appearance of concern, so completely staggered the two guards in the waist that they allowed us to get within a couple of fathoms of the one on the port side before it dawned upon them to interfere; and then Cruickshank, the man on the starboard side, dashed across the deck to the support of his companion, at the same time shouting to us in very bellicose accents:
“Here, you two, get back, d’ye hear? What d’ye mean by settin’ foot on this part of the deck against Mr Tonkin’s express orders? Now hook it, sharp, or—”
The moment that the fellow was fairly clear of the hatchway, and on the port side of the deck, I raised my hand to my lips, spat out my cigar, and sent a single shrill, but not loud, whistle along the deck, and then sprang straight at my immensely powerful antagonist, while Carter manfully tackled his own man. And at the same instant the doctor and Briggs sprang upon the pair who were keeping guard on the forecastle. As arranged, none of us attempted to do more than just pinion each his own particular antagonist and prevent him from drawing his weapons, trusting to the others to help us to master and secure them. And gallantly those others backed us up, for at the sound of my whistle, young Acutt—a fine, athletic young giant—dashed out of the cabin and, without paying any attention to the writhing and struggling quartette in his way, dodged us and rushed forward to the galley to prevent cookie from interfering, while Fielder, Boyne, Pearson, and Taylor—the other four young griffins—rushed with equal celerity to the support of the doctor, Briggs, Carter, and myself. My own particular man struggled savagely in his endeavour to free himself from my grasp, and, being a much heavier and more powerful man than I was, pinned me up against the rail and threw his whole strength into a determined effort to break my back, in which effort he would have very speedily succeeded had not Boyne quickly felled him to the deck and stunned him by a well-directed blow from an iron belaying-pin. To disarm and securely bind the fellow was the work of but a minute or two, and then, breathless with our exertions, and, so far as I was concerned, in considerable pain, Boyne and I stood up and looked about us to see how the others were faring. Looking, first of all, near home, we saw Hales pinned up against the rail, with young Pearson taking his weapons away from him, while Carter was busily engaged in seizing him up, the general meanwhile standing by and pointing my drawn sword at his throat to discourage him from any ill-advised attempt at resistance; while the doctor and Briggs, with the assistance of Fielder and Taylor, were also busily engaged in securing their respective men. The ship was ours! and now it only remained for us to take promptly such steps as were necessary to retain possession of her when the other mutineers should see fit to return.
The first thing to be done was to release my own men from confinement, and this we instantly did, when I had the great satisfaction of discovering that, thanks to the skill of Doctor Burgess, and the assiduous nursing of Mrs Jenkins and her daughter Patsy, all our wounded, except two, were so far convalescent as to be quite fit for ordinary duty, while the other two were also doing so favourably that they could be made useful in a variety of ways provided that they were not called upon to undertake any very severe physical exertion. Thus I very soon found myself at the head of a little band of nine armed and resolute men, each of whom was prepared to do my bidding to the death if called upon.
We now lost no time in hustling our four prisoners down into the fore-peak, where they could do no harm, and where, after being securely clapped into irons, they were bade to make themselves as comfortable as they could on top of the ship’s stock of coal, while one of my men who, from the comparatively severe character of his wounds, was least likely to be of service to us in other directions, was stationed in the forecastle above, fully armed, to keep an eye upon them, and see they got into no mischief. This little matter having been satisfactorily arranged, we next got the hatches off the after hatchway, and roused the passengers’ baggage on deck, from which the respective owners at once proceeded to withdraw such weapons and ammunition as they possessed; after which we struck the various packages down into the hold again and put on the hatches.
We now mustered seventeen armed men, all told, each of whom was provided with a firearm of some kind, while my own nine men, myself, and the general boasted sidearms as well. Carter had no weapons of his own, neither had the doctor nor Briggs, but three of the youngsters possessed a brace of pistols each, which they were quite willing to lend; and with these Carter, the doctor, and Briggs were promptly armed. This brought our number up to twenty against the twenty-three away in the longboat; and since we possessed the advantage over the mutineers that we had the ship’s deck as a fighting platform, I thought that we might now regard ourselves as masters of the situation. Nevertheless I did not feel disposed to neglect any further advantages that we might happen to possess—for not all of our party were fighting men, and I did not know how the civilians might behave in a hand-to-hand fight. I therefore at once began to look round with the object of ascertaining what further means of defence the ship afforded. She was pierced for twelve guns—six of a side; but the only artillery that she actually carried was a pair of 6-pounder brass carronades, the carriages of which were secured one on either side of the main-deck entrance to the saloon. I suspected that these pieces had been put on board by the owners more for the purpose of signalling than as a means of defence, but I now gave them a very careful overhaul, and came to the conclusion that they were good, reliable weapons, and capable of rendering efficient service. But when I came to question Carter about ammunition he could tell me nothing, as he had not been aboard the ship when her cargo was stowed. However, at my suggestion he now took possession of the skipper’s cabin, and proceeded to give it a thorough overhaul, with the result that in a short time he reappeared with a key in his hand, attached to which was a parchment label inscribed “Magazine”. This was strong presumptive evidence in favour of the supposition that a magazine existed somewhere aboard the ship, and a little further search resulted in its discovery abaft the lazarette. With all due precautions we at once proceeded to open this receptacle, and found, to our very great satisfaction, that it not only contained a supply of signal rockets, but also a liberal supply of powder cartridges for the signal guns, and a dozen stands of muskets, together with a goodly number of kegs, some of which contained powder, while the remainder were full of bullets. This was a most fortunate discovery indeed, especially in so far as the muskets were concerned, for the possession of them at once gave us a definite and very decided advantage over the mutineers. The muskets were forthwith conveyed on deck, together with a supply of powder and three kegs of bullets, and also a dozen cartridges for the guns. The afternoon was by this time well advanced, and we might look for the return of the mutineers at any moment. We therefore loaded the carronades with five double handfuls of musket balls apiece—about a hundred bullets to each gun—in place of round shot, and, running them forward, mounted them on the topgallant forecastle as being the most commanding position in the ship. Then we loaded the muskets and placed them in the rack on the fore side of the deck-house, which completed our preparations. And now all that remained was to keep a sharp look-out, and, while doing so, determine upon the policy to be pursued when the returning longboat should heave in sight.
Having personally seen that our preparations were all as complete and perfect as it was possible to make them, and having also posted Simpson and Martin, two of my own men, armed with muskets, as look-outs, on the forecastle, I at length went aft to the poop, where all the passengers were now gathered, and where I saw the general and Mr Morton engaged in earnest conversation with Carter. As I made my way leisurely up the poop-ladder the general beckoned to me to join the little group, and then, as I approached, Carter turned to me and said:
“Mr Grenvile, the general, Mr Morton, and I have been discussing together the rather curious state of affairs that has been brought about aboard this ship by this unfortunate mutiny; and we are fully agreed that, as matters stand, you are the most fit and proper person to take charge until things have been straightened out. Of course I don’t forget that, in consequence of the death of Cap’n Williams, I’m now the cap’n of this ship; but, as I’ve just been tellin’ Sir Thomas and Mr Morton, here, I’ve never had any experience of fightin’ of any kind, and as like as not if I was to attempt to take the lead, where fightin’ is concerned, I should make a bungle of it. Now, you seem to be quite at home in this sort of thing, if you’ll excuse me for sayin’ so; you knew exactly what was the right thing to be done, and have really been in command the whole of this blessed day, although you’ve pretended that you were only helpin’, as you may say. Then you’ve got nine trained fightin’ men aboard here who’ll do just exactly what you tell ’em, but who wouldn’t care to have me orderin’ them—to say nothin’ of you—about. So we’ve come to the conclusion that, so far as the fightin’ and all that is concerned, you are the right man to be in command, and I, as cap’n of this ship, hereby ask you to take charge and deal with the trouble accordin’ as you think best.” I bowed, and then turned to the other two, saying: “Sir Thomas and Mr Morton, it occurs to me that you two, in virtue of the fact that you are in a sense doubly interested in this matter—since it not only involves you in your own proper persons but also in the persons of your wives and families—are entitled to express an opinion upon this proposal of Captain Carter’s, and that I, as a naval officer, ought to give your opinion my most serious consideration. Am I to understand that you are in full and perfect agreement with Mr Carter in this proposal which he has just made to me?”
“Most assuredly we are, Mr Grenvile,” answered the general. “Captain Carter is a merchant seaman, and no doubt a very excellent man in that capacity; but he now finds himself face to face with a difficulty such as merchant captains are, fortunately, very seldom called upon to face, and naturally he feels somewhat at a loss. You, on the other hand, are, by your whole training, well qualified to deal with the situation, and, in view of the important interests involved, Captain Carter—and we also—would like you to assume the command.”
“Very well,” said I, “I will do so, and will use my utmost endeavours to extricate ourselves from this difficulty. I already have a plan for dealing with the mutineers when they return, which I think ought to prove successful, and that, too, without any need for fighting; but I shall require the assistance of the gentlemen passengers to enable me to make an imposing display of force.”
“That is all right, my boy,” answered the general cordially; “we will willingly place ourselves under your orders without reserve; so tell us what you would have us do, and we will do it.”
“Well,” said I, “we may now expect the mutineers to return at any moment, and we must be ready for them when they appear. I will therefore ask you all to have your weapons at hand; and when the longboat heaves in sight the ladies must immediately go below, out of harm’s way, while you distribute yourselves along the bulwarks, with your firearms levelled at the boat. You must arrange yourselves in such a manner that the mutineers may be able to see that you are all armed, and prepared to fight if necessary. By this means I hope to overawe them and bring them to reason.”
I then completed all my arrangements, being careful to take Carter into my full confidence, and treat him in every respect as master of the ship, assuming for myself rather the character of his first lieutenant than anything else—and then all that remained for us to do was to sit down and patiently await the return of the mutineers. But the time sped on, the hour of sunset arrived, and darkness fell upon the scene without any sign of the longboat, and I began to feel somewhat uneasy as to the safety of the absentees, for we were in a lonely, and, so far as my knowledge went, an unfrequented part of the coast; and I had heard some rather gruesome stories as to the doings of the natives, and of the treatment that they were wont to mete out to white men—shipwrecked sailors and others—who happened to be so unfortunate as to fall into their hands. And as the hours drifted past without bringing any news, I at length grew so anxious that I began to consider very seriously the advisability of sending away a boat in search of the missing men. After fully discussing the matter with Carter, however, I came to the conclusion that our first duty was to take care of the ship and her passengers, and that the mutinous crew must be left to look after themselves. Finally, having set a strong anchor-watch, I went below and turned in.
Daylight arrived, noon came, and still there was no sign of the absentees, and in a fever of anxiety I made my way up to the fore-royal-yard, from which lofty elevation I made a careful survey of the inland district. But there was very little to see beyond a two-mile stretch of a broad, winding river dotted with tree-grown islets here and there. The country itself was so densely overgrown with bush and trees that nothing upon its surface was to be seen. As to the longboat, she was nowhere visible; but I was not much astonished at that, because, from the glimpse that I was able to catch of the river, I had very little doubt that its characteristics were precisely those of all the other rivers in that region, namely, a somewhat sluggish current of water thick with foul and fetid mud, swampy margins overgrown with mangroves, and numerous shallow, winding creeks, mangrove-bordered, discharging into it on either side; and it was highly probable that, failing to find a firm bank upon which to land along the margin of the river itself, the mutineers had proceeded in search of such a spot up one of the creeks. There were no canoes to be seen on that part of the river’s surface which was visible from my look-out, and the only suggestion of human life anywhere in the neighbourhood was to be found in what I took to be a thin, almost invisible, wreath of smoke rising above the tree tops at a spot some two miles distant. That wreath of smoke might, of course, indicate the position of the mutineers’ bivouac; but, on the other hand, it might—and I thought this far more likely—indicate the location of a native village; and if the latter suspicion should prove to be correct I could not but feel that the situation of the mutineers was one full of peril.
Having taken a careful mental note of everything that I had seen, I descended the ratlines, and, making my way aft, invited Carter, the general, and Mr Morton to join me in the main saloon, which happened just then to be vacant. When we arrived there, I told my companions what I had seen, and what I feared, and then laid before them a proposal that I should take the ship’s galley—a very fine six-oared boat—and, with my nine men, and one of the carronades mounted in the bows, go in search of the missing men. But neither the general nor Morton would hear of this for a moment. They were quite willing that a boat should be dispatched to search for the longboat and her crew if the matter could be arranged, but they very strongly protested against the idea that I and all my nine fighting men should leave the ship, which, they pointed out, would be at the mercy of the mutineers if we were to miss them and if they were to get back before us; or, possibly, which would be still worse, open to an attack from hundreds of savages should the natives by any chance have discovered us and observed our helpless predicament. I was pointing out to them that this stand which they were taking rendered the idea of a search impossible, since I considered it neither wise nor prudent to dispatch a weak search party, and that I could not dream of ordering any of my own men away upon such an expedition in the command of anyone but myself, when I heard a call on deck, and the next moment Simpson presented himself at the entrance of the saloon to say that the longboat was in sight, pulling hard for the ship, but that, so far as could be made out, there were only five men in her! Whereupon, with one accord we all dashed out on deck and made the best of our way to the topgallant-forecastle, which afforded a good view of the approaching boat. It was now a few minutes past three o’clock, ship’s time.
Arrived on the forecastle, I snatched the telescope from the hands of the look-out as he flourished the instrument toward the boat, with the remark:
“There she comes, sir, and the buckos in her seem to be in a tearin’ hurry, too. See how they’re makin’ the spray fly and the oars buckle! They’re workin’ harder just now than they’ve done for many a long day, I’ll warrant.”
Levelling the instrument upon the approaching boat, I saw that, as Simpson had informed me, there were only five men in her, who, as the look-out man had observed, were pulling as though for their lives. The boat, although a heavy one, was positively foaming through the water, and the long, stout ash oars, which the men were labouring at, bent and sprang almost to breaking point at every stroke.
“There is something very seriously wrong somewhere,” said I gravely, “and those fellows are bringing the news of it. Let them come alongside, Simpson; but muster the Sharks at the gangway to disarm those men as they come up the side, should they happen to have any weapons about them.”
Two minutes later the longboat dashed alongside, and as the men flung in their oars, the man who had been pulling bow sprang to his feet and yelled:
“Heave me a line, mates, and for God’s sake let us come aboard. We want to see Mr Carter, quick!”
“All right, my bully boy,” answered Simpson. “Here’s a line for ye; look out! But don’t you chaps be in too much of a hurry now; the orders is that you’re to come up the side one at a time. And if you’ve got any such little matter as a knife or a pistol about you, just fork it over. Thank’e! Next man,” as the man climbed inboard and without demur drew an empty pistol and his knife from his belt and handed them over.
“Now then, my lad,” said I, as the fellow faced round and confronted me, “where are the rest of the men who left this ship yesterday? Out with your story, as quick as you please.”
“Where are the rest!” he repeated, with white and quivering lips, while his eyes rolled and his voice rose almost to a scream. “Why, some of ’em are dead—lucky beggars! and t’others are in the hands of the savages, away there in the woods, and are bein’ slowly tormented to death, one at a time, while t’others is forced to look on and wait their turn. At least that’s how I reads what I’ve seen.”
“And how come you five men to be here?” I demanded. “Have you managed to escape from the savages, or were you not with the rest when they were taken?”
“Why, sir,” answered the fellow, “it’s like this here—”
“Stop a moment,” I interrupted him. “Tell us your whole story, as briefly as possible, from the moment when you pushed off from the ship’s side yesterday. Then we shall get something like a clear and coherent account of what has happened.”
“Yes, yes, that’s right, Grenvile,” agreed the general as he stood beside me, very upright and stern-looking, his lips white, but the eager light of battle already kindling in his eyes. “It will be a saving of time in the long run.”
“I certainly think so,” said I. “Now, my man, heave ahead with your yarn.”
“Well, sir,” resumed the man, “we shoved off from the ship’s side—three-and-twenty of us, as you know—but, beg pardon, sir, I forgot—you wasn’t on deck—”
“Never mind about that, my lad,” interrupted I; “go ahead as quickly as possible. You shoved off from the ship and pulled away into the river. What happened then?”
“Nothin’ at all, sir,” was the reply. “We just pulled into the river, and as soon as we was fairly inside we started to look round for a spot where we could get ashore; but, try where we would, we couldn’t find nothin’ but soft mud that wouldn’t have bore the weight of a cat, much less of a man. But while we was huntin’ for a place we came across a narrer creek, just wide enough for us to pull into; and Tonkin up’s hellum and says as we’ll try in there. So we pulled along for a matter of nigh upon a mile, when all at once the creek comes to an end, and we find the boat’s nose jammed in among a lot of mangrove roots. Then pore Jim Nesbitt ups and volunteers to try and scramble along the mangroves and see if he can find a spot firm enough for us to land upon; and when he’d been gone about a quarter of a hour he comes back again and says he’ve found a place. So, actin’ upon Tonkin’s orders, each one of us grabs a fowl, or a bottle, or what not, and away we goes in pore Jim’s wake; and presently out we comes at a place where the mangroves stopped and the bush began, and where the mud was hard and firm enough to walk upon, and a little later we comes upon a sort of path through the bush, follerin’ which we presently comes into a little open space where there was nothin’ but grass, with big trees growin’ all round it, and there we brought ourselves to an anchor, and cried ‘Spell ho!’
“Then we had some grub and a drop or two of grog, and a smoke, and then some of us stretched out on the grass to have a snooze; but the ants and creepin’ things was that wishious and perseverin’ that we couldn’t lie still for two minutes on end; so we all gets up and starts huntin’ for fruit. But the only fruit we could find was cokernuts, and they was to be had, as many as we wanted, just for the trouble of shinnin’ up the trees. So we ate nuts and drank the milk—with just a dash of rum in it now and again—until we didn’t want any more; and then we laid ourselves down again, and in spite of the ants and things some of us had a good long sleep. I felt just as sleepy as the rest, but I couldn’t get no peace at all on the ground, so I looked round and presently made up my mind to go aloft in a big tree that was standin’ not far off. That tree to look at was as easy to climb as them there ratlins, but somehow it took me a long time to shin up it and find a comfortable place where I could get a snooze without fallin’ from aloft; but by and by I came athwart a branch with a big fork in it, reachin’ out well over the open space where the other chaps were lyin’ about, and, wedgin’ myself into the fork, I was very soon fast asleep.
“When I woke up it was pitch dark, exceptin’ that somebody had lighted a big fire in the middle of the open space, and there was our lads all lyin’ round fast asleep. I felt cold, for the night had turned foggy, and I was tryin’ to make up my mind to climb down and get a bit nearer to the fire when a most awful yellin’ arose, and the next second the place was chock-full of leapin’ and howlin’ niggers flourishin’ great clubs and spears, and bowlin’ over our chaps as fast as they got up on to their feet. A few of our people managed to get up, hows’ever, and they got to work with their pistols and cutlasses, and I let fly with my pistol from where I sat up aloft among the branches, and bowled over an ugly, bald-headed old chap rigged in a monkey-skin round his ’midships, and carryin’ a live snake in his hand.
“The loss of this old cock seemed to have a most astonishin’ effect upon the other niggers, for whereas the minute afore they’d been doin’ all they knew to kill our chaps, no sooner was this old party down than all hands of ’em what had seen him fall stops dead and yells out ‘pilliloo’ to t’others, when, dash my wig if the whole lot of ’em didn’t just make one jump upon our people—them that was still alive I mean—and beat their weapons out o’ their hands, after which they lashes ’em all together, with their hands behind ’em, and marches ’em off into the bush, some twenty or thirty of ’em stoppin’ behind to make sure that all of our lads as was down was also dead. And d’ye know how they did that, sir? Why, by just choppin’ off their heads with great swords made of what looked like hard wood!
“Seven of our pore chaps lost the number of their mess in this way, and then the savages cleared out, carryin’ the heads away with ’em, and leavin’ the bodies lyin’ scattered about the place. I waited up in my tree until the murderin’ thieves had got clear away, and then I starts to climb down, intendin’ to foller ’em and find out what they meant to do with the white men as they’d took away alive with ’em, when, as my feet touched the solid ground once more, dash my wig if these here four mates of mine didn’t drop out of some other trees close at hand. They’d been worried wi’ the ants and what not, same as I was, and, seein’ me shinnin’ up a tree, they’d gone and done likewise, and that’s the way that we five escaped bein’ massicreed.
“Then the five of us goes to work and holds a council o’ war, as you may say; and we agreed that two of us should foller up the savages to find out what game they was up to, while t’other three should go back to the boat and take care of her. But, seein’ that away from the scattered embers of the fire it was so dark that you could hardly see your hand before you, we agreed that ’twas no use attemptin’ to do anything until daylight; so we got up into our trees again, and held on where we were in case any o’ them savages should come back. And a precious lucky thing it was that we thought of doin’ so, for—it’s the solemn truth I’m tellin’ you, gen’lemen—we hadn’t very much more’n got settled back on our perches when back comes about a dozen o’ them savages, creepin’ out from among the trees as quiet as cats, and starts searchin’ the whole place up and down as though they’d lost somethin’. My mates and me reckoned it up that them niggers had seen us and counted us some time yesterday, and had found, after the massacree, that we wasn’t all accounted for, and so they’d come back to look for us. It was a fort’nit thing for us that we was pretty well hid by the leaves, also that the niggers didn’t seem to think of lookin’ for us up in the trees, and by and by, just as the day was breakin’, they took theirselves off again.
“When they’d got fairly away out o’ our neighbourhood I climbed down again, and the others follered suit; and Mike, here, and I made sail along the path that the niggers had gone, while the other three topped their booms for the boat, the onderstandin’ bein’ that they was to get her afloat and swung round all ready, and then wait till Mike and me j’ined ’em.
“Well, Mr Carter, sir, and gen’lemen, Mike here and me follered along the path that the savages had took, for a matter of a couple o’ mile, when we hears a tremenjous hullabaloo of niggers shoutin’, and tom-toms beatin’, and dogs barkin’, and what not, so we knowed that we was pretty close aboard a native village, as they calls ’em, so we shortened sail and got in among the bushes, creepin’ for’ard until we could see what was happenin’. And when at last we was able to get a pretty clear view, the sight we saw was enough to freeze a man’s blood. They’d got all our chaps lashed to stakes set up in a clear, open space in front of the village, and one of the pore unfort’nit fellers was stripped stark naked and bein’ tormented by a crowd o’ niggers what was puttin’ burnin’ splinters between his fingers, and stickin’ ’em into his flesh, and pourin’ red-hot cinders into his mouth, what they’d prised open by thrustin’ a thick stick in between his jaws; and the shrieks as that unhappy man was lettin’ fly was just awful to listen to; but the savages seemed to enjy ’em, for they just yelled with delight at every shriek. Mike and me we turned as sick as dogs at what we seen; and presently Mike grabs me by the hand and says: ‘Let’s get back to the ship, mate, and report. P’rhaps the skipper’ll forgive us for what we’ve done, and persuade the navy gent to fit out a hexpedition to rescue the others.’ So away we came as fast as we could, but when we got to the boat she was aground, and we had to wait a long time until she floated. But here we are, sir; and oh, gen’lemen, for the love o’ God do somethin’, if ye can, to save them pore chaps what’s bein’ tormented to death over there.”