you say, and I must have a moment or two to
think it out."

Then, turning to the five horrified seamen who had returned in the
longboat, I ordered them to go forward and get the cook to give them
something to eat and drink, for I should be in need of the services of
all of them sooner or later, while one of them would have to come with
me in the boat as a guide.

The five men whom I addressed--all thoughts of mutiny having by this
time been most effectually frightened out of their heads--turned and
slouched away forward as meekly as lambs; and the moment that they were
gone I was surrounded by an excited crowd of passengers, all of whom had
come down from the poop to listen to the story of the five returned
seamen, and every one of them had some more or less unpractical
suggestion to make. It was rather unfortunate that they had all heard
what had passed, for the very graphic narrative, told by an eye-witness,
of the gruesome happenings of the past night, and the powerful
suggestion of what was probably taking place at that moment away yonder
in the woods, had so acted upon the vivid imaginations of the women that
one or two of them were visibly upon the very verge of hysterics, while
all were more or less in a state of mortal terror as to what might be
their fate should the natives take it into their heads to attack the
ship. For, that the presence of so many white men as they had
encountered would suggest to the astute native mind the idea that a ship
was somewhere near at hand was so exceedingly likely that it might
almost be accepted as a foregone conclusion. But, terrified though the
women were, they behaved marvellously well, and quietly retired when I
requested them to do so in order that we men might be left free to
discuss details together. But, even while the chatter was raging round
me at its most excited pitch, my mind was busy upon the details of the
only plan that was at all feasible. Our entire available fighting
force, counting in the whole of the male passengers, the surgeon, Briggs
and his three assistants, Jenkins the steerage passenger, the cook, and
the five men who had escaped from the savages, amounted to thirty. It
was, of course, quite impossible to form, from the account of the five
escaped seamen, anything like an accurate estimate of the numbers of the
savages, but I believed I should be quite safe in setting them down at
not less than three hundred. There were also the four prisoner