among his grey hair; while close to him lay Maybury on his
back, quite dead, with a long spear driven right through his heart.

"The blacks turned the skipper over, examined him closely, and then,
finding that he was not dead, held some sort of consultation in their
own language, the purport of which of course I could not gather; but the
end of it was that they hoisted both of us upon their shoulders, carried
us back to the village, and thrust us into one of the huts, where we lay
untended for the remainder of the day and practically the whole of last
night. Then some time--about the small hours I think it must have
been--a girl, who proved to be the same who had flung the garland of
flowers round my neck, stole into the hut as silently as a ghost, laid
her finger upon my lips--to indicate, I suppose, that I was not to
talk--and deftly proceeded to cast adrift my bonds; after which she
proceeded vigorously to chafe my ankles and wrists, in order to restore
the circulation, which had been practically suspended by the tightness
with which the ligatures had been bound. And look here, Temple, if you
should ever chance to have an enemy, and have a fancy to torture him,
just bind his wrists and ankles tightly together and leave him for a few
hours--that's all!

"Well, when the feeling had come back into my limbs a bit, and I could
move them without screaming, the girl produced some food and drink, and,
although I don't in the least know what they were, I ate and drank
freely. Then, in the curious `pidgin' lingo that these people use when
conversing with white men, the girl gave me to understand that my life
and that of the skipper was in the greatest jeopardy, and that if I did
not want particularly to die I must buck up and save myself and the
skipper. Then, taking command, she bade me lift the old man by the
shoulders while she took his feet; and in this fashion we slipped out of
the hut, seeing nobody, and made our way slowly through the wood until
we emerged upon a little beach just on the other side of that headland.
Then she drew out from among the bushes a small canoe, in the bottom of
which she helped me to place the skipper; after which, with a warning to
me to be exceedingly careful and to make no noise, she handed me a
paddle, thrust the canoe afloat, and vanished. And--and--well, that's
all! And now you may as well pitch me the yarn of your share of the
night's doings. If one may venture to judge by appeara