“If he had been my own mother’s son he couldn’t have looked after me better than he did; night and day he was always by my side, ready to give me what I wanted. One day I heard a loud shouting and singing, and Jack, who had gone out, came back and said that the men had all started with their spears and shields. They had wanted to make him go, but the women said he must stop behind, though he had a hard matter to escape from the men. I was already getting better, and this news made me feel better still.
“‘It will be a bad return to run off with one of their boats,’ said Jack, ‘but there seems no help for it, and it may be our only chance, for the men will be back again in a day or two.’
“That very night, while Jack and I were sitting up talking, we heard shrieks and cries in the distance; and presently, looking out, Jack said he saw the houses lower down the river burning.
“Then depend upon it the pirates have taken the place, I said.
“‘No doubt about it,’ exclaimed Jack, ‘and now is our chance. If we could defend the poor women and children we would, but we cannot do that. They’ll know where to fly to, and so, I hope, escape.’
“Suddenly I felt my strength come back, and I was able to follow Jack down the ladder, at the bottom of which the boat was kept moored. To cut the painter by which she was made fast didn’t take us a moment, and springing into her we paddled across the stream. As we looked down the river we could see all the houses in a blaze, and here and there people running off into the woods, while we made out half a score or more of the dark proas stealing up along the shore.”
Just as Miles Soper had got thus far in his history I was summoned on deck, and eager as I was to hear how he and Jack had fared, I was obliged to attend to my duty.