"All I know is," replied Mont, "that if you don't want them on board the boat, you had better look out."
"My dear fellow," said the captain, "I am not likely to trouble my head about such wretches."
"But there are lots of them."
"How many?"
"Over three hundred, I should think, as well as I could count."
"We have nothing to fear from them, nothing at all," said the captain. "Don't be alarmed."
Without another word he turned again to the organ, and played a Scotch air which had an indescribable charm about it.
He was plunged again in a reverie that Mont did not think it prudent to interrupt.
He remounted to the platform without seeing a single negro.
The most absolute want of precaution reigned on board the Searcher, and it looked as if no one knew that hundreds of howling savages were within five minutes' row of them.