h. "Anythink to oblige. Any other topic you
would like to sudgest, the ryne-gyge, the lightnin'-rod, Shykespeare, or
the musical glasses? 'Ere's conversation on tap. Put a penny in the
slot, and ... 'ullo! 'ere they are!" he cried. "Now or never! is 'e
goin' to shoot?"

And the little man straightened himself into an alert and dashing
attitude, and looked steadily at the enemy.

But the captain rose half up in the boat with eyes protruding.

"What's that?" he cried.

"Wot's wot?" said Huish.

"Those--blamed things," said the captain.

And indeed it was something strange. Herrick and Attwater, both armed
with Winchesters, had appeared out of the grove behind the figure-head;
and to either hand of them, the sun glistened upon two metallic objects,
locomotory like men, and occupying in the economy of these creatures the
places of heads--only the heads were faceless. To Davis, between wind
and water, his mythology appeared to have come alive and Tophet to be
vomiting demons. But Huish was not mystified a moment.

"Divers' 'elmets, you ninny. Can't you see?" he said.

"So they are," said Davis, with a gasp. "And why? O, I see, it's for
armour."

"Wot did I tell you?" said Huish. "Dyvid and Goliar all the w'y and
back."

The two natives (for they it was that were equipped in this unusual
panoply of war) spread out to right and left, and at last lay down in
the shade, on the extreme flank of the position. Even now that the
mystery was explained, Davis was hatefully preoccupied, stared at the
flame on their crests, and forgot, and then remembered with a smile, the
explanation.

Attwater withdrew again into the grove, and Herrick, with his gun under
his arm, came down the pier alone.

About halfway down he halted and hailed the boat.

"What do you want?" he cried.

"I'll tell that to Mr. Attwater," replied Huish, stepping briskly on the
ladder. "I don't tell it to you, because you played the trucklin' sneak.
Here's a letter for him: tyke it, and give it, and be 'anged to you!"

"Davis, is this all right?" said Herrick.

Davis raised his chin, glanced swiftly at Herrick and away again, and
held his peace. The glance was charged with some deep emotion, but
whether of hatred or of fear, it was beyond Herrick to divine.

"Well," he said, "I'll give the letter." He drew a score with his foot
on the boards of the gangway. "Till I bring the answer, don't move a
step past this."

And he returned to where Attwater