movement. Will, in a loud voice and with threatening
gestures, intimated that he disapproved of the plan, and that he
and his companion would assist them in defending their village.

The Malays paused in their preparations. Their faith in their white
visitors was very great and, after a few minutes' talk among
themselves, they intimated to the boys that they would obey their
orders. Will at once signed to a few men to stand as guards round
the village, to warn them of the approaching enemy; and then set
the whole of the rest of the population to work cutting
sharp-pointed poles, boughs, and thorny bushes. With these a circle
was made around the trees upon which the village was built.
Fortunately the hostile Malays had halted in the forest, two or
three miles away, intending to make their attack by night and, as
the news of their coming had arrived at noon, the villagers had,
before they ceased work late in the evening, erected a formidable
hedge round the village.

Some of the women had been set to work manufacturing a number of
torches, similar to those used by them for lighting their
dwellings, but much larger. They were formed of the stringy bark of
a tree, dipped in the resinous juice obtained from another. Will
had one of these fastened to each of the trees nearest to the
hedge. They were fixed to the trunks on the outside, so that their
flame would throw a light on the whole circle beyond the hedge
while, within, all would be shadow and darkness.

It was very late before all preparations were completed. Will then
placed a few men as outposts, some hundred yards in the forest, in
the direction from which the enemy were likely to approach. They
were ordered to give the alarm, the moment they heard a noise; and
were then to run in and enter the circle by a small gap, which had
been left in the abbatis for the purpose. Many of the men then took
their posts, with their bows and arrows, in the trees near the
hedge. The others remained on the ground, ready to rush to any
point assailed.

For several hours no sound save the calls of the night birds, and
the occasional distant howls of beasts of prey, were heard in the
forest; and it was not until within an hour of morning--the hour
generally selected by Malays for an attack, as men sleep at that
time the heaviest--that a loud yell, at one of the outposts, told
that the enemy were close at hand.

Two or three minutes later the scouts ran in, and the gap through
wh