“I mean about the lugger,” said the mate. “I went well all over it in my mind before I began her, and saw that it would be much easier to build her here where everything was handy than to carry the materials down to the edge of the lagoon.”
“Of course,” said Oliver. “That would have been very awkward, for the men would have had to go to and fro morning and evening.”
“But,” said Panton, “a hut might have been run up for them to sleep in.”
“Which means dividing a force already too weak. If the blacks make another serious attack upon us we shall have enough to do to hold our own here together, without having part of us defending a flimsy hut, which they would serve at once as they will us here if we don’t take very great care.”
“Eh? How?” said Oliver, startled by the mate’s manner.
“Burn us out as sure as we’re alive.”