“Humph!” growled Bostock.
“What do you say?”
“On’y grunted, sir. That’s it. I’ve heard tell of chaps like him here and there in the South Seas. They knocks a few of the black fellows or coffee-coloured ones down, and makes ’em afraid, and then they do as they like, sir.”
“But is it true about their eating people?” said Carey, in a low voice, and he glanced at the door as if half-expecting to be overheard.
“Oh, yes, sir, that’s true enough. Our captain once said, when we had a report of a ship going ashore and the crew being massacred, that these chaps in some of the islands get such a little chance to have anything but fruit and fish that they’re as rav’nous as wild beasts for flesh.”
“Yes, yes, true enough,” said the doctor. “So unfortunate for them to come when we were away. We could have defended the vessel easily.”
“That means fighting, sir,” growled Bostock.
“Yes; wouldn’t you have struck a blow to defend the vessel?”
“Well, you see, sir, I’m only a sailor and not a fighting man,” said Bostock, slowly.
“You coward!” cried Carey, indignantly. “Why, boy as I am, I’d have tried to do something, if it was only reloading the guns.”