Island unawares they
were startled at being greeted by a shot the moment they landed. The
alarmed savages at once retaliated by firing their antiquated weapons
point-blank at the trees, thus giving warning enough to wake the Seven
Sleepers.

Iris, fully dressed, was out in a moment.

"They have come!" she whispered.

"Yes," was the cheery answer, for Jenks face to face with danger was a
very different man to Jenks wrestling with the insidious attacks of
Cupid. "Up the ladder! Be lively! They will not be here for half an
hour if they kick up such a row at the first difficulty. Still, we will
take no risks. Cast down those spare lines when you reach the top and
haul away when I say 'Ready!' You will find everything to hand up
there."

He held the bottom of the ladder to steady it for the girl's climb.
Soon her voice fell, like a message from a star--

"All right! Please join me soon!"

The coiled-up ropes dropped along the face of the rock. Clothes, pick,
hatchet, hammer, crowbars, and other useful odds and ends were swung
away into the darkness, for the moon as yet did not illumine the crag.
The sailor darted into Belle Vue Castle and kicked their leafy beds
about the floor. Then he slung all the rifles, now five in number, over
his shoulders, and mounted the rope-ladder, which, with the spare
cords, he drew up and coiled with careful method.

"By the way," he suddenly asked, "have you your sou'wester?"

"Yes."

"And your Bible?"

"Yes. It rests beneath my head every night. I even brought our
Tennyson."

"Ah," he growled fiercely, "this is where the reality differs from the
romance. Our troubles are only beginning now."

"They will end the sooner. For my part, I have utter faith in you. If
it be God's will, we will escape; and no man is more worthy than you to
be His agent."

CHAPTER XI

THE FIGHT

The sailor knew so accurately the position of his reliable sentinels
that he could follow each phase of the imaginary conflict on the other
side of the island. The first outbreak of desultory firing died away
amidst a chorus of protest from every feathered inhabitant of the isle,
so Jenks assumed that the Dyaks had gathered again on the beach after
riddling the scarecrows with bullets or slashing them with their heavy
razor-edged parangs, Malay swords with which experts can fell a stout
sapling at a single blow.

A hasty council was probably held, and, notwithstanding their fear of
the silent co