Courtenay was mistaken in thinking that the savages sought a parley. The canoe was paddled by two women; they changed its course with a dexterous twist of the blades when within a cable’s length of the ship, and then circled slowly round her. The four men jabbered in astonishingly loud voices. Suarez, who gathered the purport of their talk, explained that they were discussing the best method of attack.
“The three younger men belong to the tribe which I lived with,” he said. “The old man sitting between the women is a stranger. I think he must have come from the north of the island with some of his friends, attracted by the smoke signals.”
“From the north? Is there a road?” asked Courtenay, when he learnt what Suarez was saying.
“He would arrive in a canoe,” was the answer. “The Indians venture out to sea in very bad weather. He probably passed the ship late last night, and, now I come to think of it, the canoe which you captured is not familiar to me, whereas I know by sight every craft owned by the Feathered People.”
“How many do they possess?”
“Twenty-three.”
These statements were disconcerting. Not only was it possible for the natives to surround the Kansas with a whole swarm of men, but the mere number of their boats would render it exceedingly difficult to repel a combined assault. And nothing could be more truculent than the demeanor of the semi-nude warriors. They pointed at each person they saw on the decks, and made a tremendous row when they passed the canoe fastened alongside. Despite their keen sight, they evidently did not recognize Suarez, who now wore a cap and a suit of clothes taken from the locker of one of the missing stewards, while his appearance was so altered otherwise that even the people on board found it difficult to regard him as the monstrous-looking wizard whom they had dragged out of the water some twelve hours earlier.
The impudence of the Indians exasperated Courtenay. The sheer size of the Kansas should have awed them, he thought.
“I wish they had left their women behind,” he muttered. “If the men were alone, an ounce or two of buck-shot would soon teach them to keep their distance.”
“Perhaps they are aware of the danger of boarding a ship which stands so high above the sea as the Kansas,” said Christobal. “Why not fire a couple of rounds of blank cartridge at them?”