“Perhaps so, and if we were alone we could make them our obedient servants. They look up to the whites as superior beings, but they are not to be trusted, my boy. This Mallam has had them under his thumb for years, and as you must have seen, a few sharp orders from him bring out their savage instincts, their faces change, their eyes look full of ferocity, and if their white chief wished it they would kill us all without compunction.”
“And cook and eat us afterwards without salt?” said the boy, merrily.
“You laugh,” replied the doctor, “but it is a horrible fact, my boy; and if we knew all that has taken place in connection with this man’s rule over them, we should have some blood-curdling things to dwell upon.”
“I don’t feel afraid,” said Carey, coolly. “Of course, I should if it came to such a state of affairs as you hint at. But if it came to the worst, I should jump overboard and try to swim ashore.”
“To be taken by a shark or a crocodile?”
“Well, that would be a more natural way of coming to one’s end, sir. But, pooh! we’re not going to be beaten, doctor. We must get Mr Dan Mallam—Old King Cole, Bob calls him—shut up below somewhere and out of sight of the blacks. They’d obey us then, and we should be all right. Why, we’re not going to be afraid of one man.”
“One man?” said the doctor.
“Yes, one man. He’s only one man when he’s alone. I felt yesterday that we had twenty-one enemies. Now I feel that we’ve only one. Bob says we must wait.”
“Yes, it is good advice,” replied the doctor, “and we will wait. Carey, my lad, we must bend to circumstances till our chance comes. There, I have been behaving in a poor, cowardly way.”
“Oh, nonsense, sir!”