“‘What are they up to?’ says Buck.
“‘Can’t you see?’ says I. ‘They’re going to carry the crackers in those baskets. They mean business right enough. Lord! Buck,’ I says, ‘I wish we were out of this; look at the fix we’re in. If them chaps are beaten by Sru, we’ll be done in as sure as paint—makes me sick, sitting here, and there’s our boat right before us. S’pose we make a dash right now, shove her off and get on board——’
“‘Not a bit of use,’ says Buck. ‘They’d let after us in the canoes before we’d pushed off—we’ve just got to stick and see it out. I’m sorry,’ he says; ‘it’s my fault; you were right, and if I ever get out of this I’ll steer clear of mixing up in other folks’ quarrels. I wouldn’t have done it only for the Chink.’
“‘Oh, it don’t matter,’ I says; ‘we’re in it and there’s no use in kicking.’
“I called Taute, who was standing watching the basket work and jabbering with Tiaki, and asked him for news and what he thought they were going to do with us in case things went wrong. He went to Tiaki and had a jabber, and came back to us looking pretty grey about the gills.
“Tiaki was going to attack Sru right away, starting that night and reaching Taleka next morning early; with the current the big war canoes would do the journey in seven hours. He couldn’t make a night attack because of the difficulty of getting in, but he reckoned to reach the bay just at daybreak. Then came the news that we were to go with them and lead the attack. Tiaki said as we had sold Sru the guns to attack Tiaki, it was only fair that we should lead Tiaki’s men against the guns, besides, he wanted to make sure we weren’t leading him into a trap; besides, he had often noticed white men feared nothing and were splendid fighters. He also said if we failed him facing the guns of Sru we’d have fish crackers flung at our backs.
“You see the way that durn cargo served us; the guns in front of us, the crackers at our back—we couldn’t say anything—couldn’t do anything but curse Scudder and the day we met him, and sit there watching the preparations. Women were bringing down provisions for the canoes, and the baskets were ready and being distributed. They weren’t so much baskets as bags such as the natives use for carting every sort of thing in; each fighting man had one, and then the crackers were handed round about twenty to a man. They’d place them between their legs in the canoes as they paddled; every man had a spear as well, and as they stood there getting on for sundown, each man with his basket of bombs and a spear, I’d have been proud to lead them only I was so frightened.
V
“Now the funniest thing happened.
“All that crowd of fighting men full up of pride and devilment began shouting and chanting a war song. That was all right as far as it went, but after it was over a chocolate-coloured son of a gun began making a speech, shouting and pointing towards Taleka as if to say what he wouldn’t do to Sru.