the rich tropical air; below me the waves
beat in ripples against the rugged beach, casting off from time to
time little flashes of phosphorescent light, and mirroring in their
depths the hardly distinguishable outline of the Southern Cross. The
salt smell of the sea was tinged with the spice-laden air of the
near coast. Drowsiness came over me. I picked up a musket and paced
around the little plateau. The moon had but just reached its zenith,
making all objects easily discernible. The smooth storm-swept space
before me reflected back its rays like a well-scrubbed quarter-deck;
below were the dark outlines of my sleeping mates. I could hear the
light wind rustling through the branches of the casuarina trees that
fringed the shore. I paused and looked over the sea. Like a charge
of electricity a curious sensation of fear shot through me. Then an
intimation that some object had flashed between me and the moon. I
rubbed my eyes and gazed in the air above, expecting to see a night
bird or a bat. Then the same peculiar sensation came over me again,
and I looked down in the water below just in time to see the long,
keen, knife-like outline of a pirate prau glide as noiselessly as a
shadow from a passing cloud into the gloom of the island. Its great,
wide-spreading, dark red sails were set full to the wind, and hanging
over its sides by ropes were a dozen naked Illanums, guiding the
sensitive craft almost like a thing of life. Within the prau were
two dozen fighting men, armed with their alligator hide buckler,
long, steel-tipped spear, and ugly, snake-like kris. A third prau
followed in the wake of the other two, and all three were lost in
the blackness of the overhanging cliffs.

With as little noise as possible, I ran across the plain and warned my
companion, then picked my way silently down the defile to the camp. The
captain responded to my touch and was up in an instant. The men were
awakened and the news whispered from one to another. Gathering up
what food and utensils we possessed, we hurried to get on top of
the plateau before our exact whereabouts became known. The captain
hoped that when they discovered we were well fortified and there was
no wreck to pillage, they would withdraw without giving battle. They
had landed on the opposite side of the island from our boat and might
leave it undisturbed. We felt reasonably safe in our fortress from
attacks. There were but two breaks in its precipitous sides, each a