GHT.

The sheet which I have called our tent was stretched over a low bough,
and secured to pegs at the four corners, being all open at the sides, so
that as I lay I could gaze right away in any direction.

On one side there was gloom, with the tall pillar-like tree trunks
standing up grey and indistinct; on the other side there was the bright
fire, which was as dangerous, I thought, as it was useful, for though it
served to keep off wild beasts it was likely to attract savage men, just
as moths fly to a flame.

As I lay there I could see the doctor keeping watch, and beside him one
of the natives, whose black face looked curious and ghastly with the
bandage he wore round his head, for this was one of the men who had been
seized by the captain of the other schooner, and who had eagerly
volunteered to be of our party.

This man was gazing intently at the doctor, as if eager to catch the
slightest indication of a wish, and so still and misty did he look in
the weird light that but for the flaming of the fire from his eyes it
would have been hard to tell that he was a living being.

Though it was not cold our black followers all slept close about the
fire, Jimmy the nearest--so close, in fact, that he seemed as if he were
being prepared for a feast on the morrow; and this idea of roasting came
the more strongly from the fact that we were in a land whose inhabitants
were said to have certain weaknesses towards a taste for human joints.

Jack Penny was sleeping heavily close to me, and at regular intervals
seeming to announce that he was dreaming of eating, for his lips gave
vent over and over again to the word _pork_!

Sometimes this regular snoring sound annoyed me, but I forgot it again
directly as I lay sleepless there, now watching the gloom of the forest,
now the flickering and dancing light of the fire as the wood crackled
and burned and the sparks and smoke went straight up, till they were
lost on high amid the densely thick branches overhead.

It was a curious sensation to be there in that awful solitude, thinking
of my past adventures, and wondering what the next day might bring
forth. I wanted to sleep and rest, so as to rise refreshed when the
doctor called me two hours after midnight, when I was to relieve guard;
but sleep would not come, and I lay fidgeting about, wondering how it
was possible that such a small twig could set up so much irritation
beneath my back.

Then, just as I thought I was going