lico, shivering from crown to toe. "The
Oensmen, shoo'. The time of year they come plunder; now _oosho_ [red
leaf]. They rob, kill, murder us all if we stay here. Too late now get
pass um. They meet us yonner. We must run to hills; hide in woods."

The course he counsels is already being taken by his compatriots; all of
whom, men and women, on hearing the word "Oensmen"--the most terrifying
bogey of their babyhood--have made a rush to the wigwams and hastily
gathered up the most portable of their household goods. Nor do they
stay for Jemmy; but all together, shouting and screaming, strike off
into the woods--his own wife with them!

Orundelico, left alone with the boat's people, remains by them but for a
brief moment, urging them to flight also.

"Oensmen bad--very bad," he keeps affirming. "They worse than
Ailikoleep--more cruel. Kill you all if you stay here. Come hide in
the woods--there you safe."

"What's to be done?" interrogates the captain, as usual appealing to
Seagriff. "If we retreat inland, we shall lose the boat--even if we
save ourselves."

"Sartain, we'd lose her, and I don't think thar's need to. Let me hev
another look through yer glass, capting."

A hasty glance enables him to make a rough estimate of the distance
between the cove's mouth and the approaching canoes.

"I guess we kin do it," he says, with a satisfied air.

"Do what?"

"Git out o' this cove 'fore they shet us up in it. Ef we kin but make
'roun' that p'int eastart we'll be safe. Besides, it ain't at all
likely we could escape t'other way, seein' how we're hampered."

This, with a side glance toward Mrs Gancy and Leoline:

"On land they'd soon overtake us, hide or no hide--sure to. Tharfer,
our best, our _only_ chance, air by the water," he affirms.

"By the water be it, then," calls out Captain Gancy, decisively. "We
shall risk it!"

"Yes, yes!" agreed the late _Calypso's_ second and third officers.
"Anything but lose our boat!"

Never did crew or passengers get more quickly on board a craft, nor was
there ever a more unceremonious leave-taking between guests and host,
than that between the castaways and Orundelico.

On his side, the hurry is even greater: he scarcely waits, as it were on
the doorstep, to see them off. For as soon as he is convinced they are
really going, he turns his back on them and hastily darts in among the
trees like a chased squirrel.

The instant that everybody is in the boat it