“I say, we seem to be leaving the canoes down the river well behind, but those up stream are bearing down upon us fast.”
“Then,” said the captain, “they’d better look out, gentlemen, and keep out of our way, for I mean to rush right upon them full sail. The prows of these boats are pretty sharp, and their dug-outs don’t take much to send them to the bottom. I say, you Dan,” he went on, “you’d better serve round some biscuit and bacon to the lads, for they must be getting peckish after what they’ve gone through. I say, Sir Humphrey, what do you say to making a hand-grenade or two out of pound powder-tins and pieces of rag?”
“To throw on board the canoes?” said Sir Humphrey: “horrible!”
“Quite true, sir; but it would be more horrible still if these savages should manage to get the better of the crew of the ‘Jason’ brig. What do you say to that?”
“I give up,” replied Sir Humphrey. “I hate the idea of slaughtering the poor ignorant wretches, but self-preservation is the first law of nature.”
“Exactly so, sir. If we kill it won’t be for the sake of killing.”
“How is Jem’s wound going on?” said Brace anxiously.
“You take no notice about that, sir,” said the captain, with a peculiar look. “He has got a hole in his leg made by an arrow, and I’ve doctored it up just as I did your brother’s, and laughed at him and told him it served him right. You gentlemen had better take the same line. If he sees that we look serious about it he’ll take and die right off: he’ll kill himself with the belief that he’s shot by a poisoned arrow.”
“Is he?” said Brace, in an eager whisper.
“I didn’t see the arrow made, sir, and I didn’t see it dipped in anything. What’s more, I never saw the arrow at all, for the boys pulled it out and chucked it away. Maybe it was poisoned; but you see these arrows are only meant to kill birds, and what might kill a bird won’t do much harm to a man. I’ve done all I know for the wound, same as we did for your brother’s. He got well, and if we laugh at Jem he’ll get well too.”