length reached a point about a
quarter of a mile from the beach, when the crew lay upon their oars,
while the man in the stern-sheets rose to his feet and proceeded to
subject Eden, and as much of the rest of the group as was visible from
his point of view, to a prolonged scrutiny, after which, at a sign from
him, the oars again dipped in the water and, turning, the boat recrossed
the lagoon and made her way back to the junk.

There was now a pause in the proceedings, during which, I conjectured,
the man who had been in charge of the boat was making his report to his
skipper. The pause, however, was not of long duration, for, as I
continued to watch, signs of a sudden stir aboard the junk became
perceptible, and a few minutes later I saw that her crew were lowering
two more boats, much larger than the first, and that a considerable
number of men--who, so far as it was possible to see at that distance,
were all armed--were swarming down the junk's side into them. This
seemed to indicate that my worst suspicions regarding the character of
the vessel were only too well founded, and that a pretty stiff fight was
in prospect for us. If this should be so it was time to see about
making my dispositions for the conflict; I accordingly re-entered the
house and, girding on my cutlass, thrust a brace of fully loaded
revolvers into my belt, seized my own pet rifle and, filling my jacket
pockets with cartridges, sallied forth and, joining Bowata and his
party, led them down to the beach.

This particular strip of beach, it should be explained, was quite unlike
the other beaches of the group. The latter, composed of white coral
sand, were continuous, smooth, unencumbered, averaged from thirty feet
wide in some cases to as much as a hundred feet wide in others, and
usually sloped steeply enough to enable our boat, with good way on her,
to run herself high enough on them to permit us to land dry-footed. On
the other hand, the beach toward which we were now heading was a strip
of coral sand not more than a quarter of a mile long, perfectly smooth,
but sloping so very gently that I much doubted whether the boats I had
seen preparing to leave the junk could approach within fifty yards of
the shore without grounding. But the circumstance most greatly in our
favour was that this comparatively short length of beach, while inviting
enough in appearance as a landing-place, was backed, on its shore side,
by an outcrop of black rocks that