“Pooh! not half enough. There, we can do no more. Now about that black.—Here, Jack, what do you say? Is that fellow in collusion with the people coming on?”
“No,” said Uncle Jack, decisively. “If he had been, he is cunning enough to have lulled us into security. He need not have uttered a warning, and the blacks could have surprised us after dark.”
“Yes, there is something in that,” said the captain. “And look what he did, father, directly he had warned us.”
“What?”
“Set to work with his boomerang covering the fire over with earth to smother out the smoke.”
“But it might all be cunning to put us off our guard with him, and it would be a hideous danger to have a traitor in our little stronghold.”
“For him,” said Uncle Jack, grimly.
“Yes,” said his brother. “But there, I’ll trust him. I should not display all this horrible suspicion if it were not for the women. They make quite a coward of me. Now, can we do any more?”
“No,” said Uncle Jack; “there is no time. We can keep a good many at bay.”
“If you fire steadily,” said the captain. “No shot must be fired without good reason. In war, many go to one enemy the less. In this case every shot must tell.”