The moment he had accomplished this terrible and atrocious act, he went plunging down to the beach, shouting—
"The savages—the natives are upon us; into the boats with you for your lives, and shove off to the ship!"
Alarmed by this cry, and being unarmed, the party were forced to be content with what turtle they had got—some seven or eight—and leaping into their two boats, pushed off at once from the shore, and shipping their oars pulled away with a will, just as a naked horde of dark-skinned savages, perfectly nude, save in the matter of the bead ornaments that hung about their persons, shrieking, whooping, yelling, and dancing like mad things, came rushing with war-clubs, spears, powerful bows and arrows, close to the edge of the water, and even rushing into it up to their waists.
The boats' crews could see their dark, copper-coloured skins, their hair which was longer and straighter than the wool of the negro, their gleaming eyes and white glistening teeth. An arrow or two whistled past, but wide of the mark, and with laughing shouts of defiance the party brought their boats sheering alongside the ship, when the turtles had ropes hitched round them, and were quickly conveyed on board.
"Hoist in the boats," was now the order of Rudderhead, in his guilty haste anticipating the authority of the captain for doing so.
In the haste and confusion with which they had embarked, the crew of each boat probably thought—if they thought on the subject at all—that Derval was on board the other; nor was it till the boats were being actually hoisted in on each quarter, that he was missed, and Joe Grummet asked, with some asperity and much alarm:
"Where is the third mate—where is Mr. Hampton?"
Then the boats' crews looked inquiringly and blankly into each other's faces.
"Left on shore!" said Captain Talbot. "Good heaven! what a fate he must have met by this time!"
"We had not a moment to lose, sir, as you must have seen, if you had been watching us," said Rudderhead sullenly and with averted eyes; "his safety was his own look-out—not mine; and I think the third mate could take jolly good care of himself."