git into
the chains with the lead."

But before the man could sound the Sea Spell grounded again, and this
time she ran her keel upon a sand bank so solidly that she stopped dead,
with the sails above cracking! There was a hullabaloo for a few minutes,
now I tell you. Shouts, commands, the grinding of the schooner's keel,
the slatting of sails. The Sea Spell had driven so hard and fast upon
the shoal that she canted neither to port, or starboard. And although
the sea was still so that she would not be beaten by the waves, it
looked much to me as though she were piled up on this unfriendly coast
for good and all!

CHAPTER XXVII

IN WHICH WE FIND THE NATIVES MORE UNFRIENDLY THAN THE COAST

The bright light ahead had disappeared. Tugg was berating Pedro for
getting off his course and running the schooner aground. In a minute,
however, another light flashed up nearby and I saw that a huge bonfire
had been kindled on the shore not more than a cable's length away.

"What in the e-tar-nal snakes is that?" bawled Captain Adoniram Tugg,
seeing this fire. "That ain't the Professor--not a bit of it."

In a minute the flames rose so high that we could see figures moving in
the light of them. And wild enough figures they were--half naked
fellows, taller than ordinary men, and waving spears and clubs.

"I believe some of your Patagonian giants you have been telling me about
have gone on the warpath, Captain," I said.

"Not a bit of it! Not a bit of it," he snarled. "They're as tame as
tiger-kittens."

"Just the same I'm going to get my gun and pistol," I declared, and I
dove below.

When I came back to the deck two more fires were burning. The
shore--which was a low bluff--was illuminated for some hundreds of
yards. There was a gang of a hundred or more dancing savages about the
fires. I was frightened; those savages were not "gentled" enough to suit
me.

The captain and Pedro had evidently come to a decision. The fires
revealing the coast as they did showed them where the mistake had been
made. Tugg said:

"Can't blame Pedro. That beacon lantern we saw had been shifted. I hope
those wretches yonder haven't got the Professor foul. But one thing is
sure: They brought that big lantern clear across the inlet and set it up
on the west shore. No wonder we ran aground. It was a pretty trick, I do
allow."

"And these are the natives you told me were perfectly harmless?"

"Not my boys," said Tugg. "There are wild