ree to my going away alone in search of help.

But about a month later, when the four women were busily and laboriously
engaged upon the tedious task of weaving by hand our stock of thread
into a coarse, tough cloth, a dramatic interruption of our labours
occurred which, but for the mercy of God, might have had a most tragic
ending.

I had by this time accumulated upon the top of the Peak a sufficient
quantity of material to make a blaze and smoke that might be seen in
clear weather at least thirty miles away, and I had therefore ceased to
devote my whole time to adding to the pile, employing myself instead in
industriously collecting the thread-like bark out of which we were
making our cloth. Nevertheless it was a habit of mine to wend my way to
the summit every morning immediately after breakfast, in order to take a
good look round on the chance of a sail being in sight; and I repeated
the excursion daily after our midday meal, collecting a load of
combustibles on my way and carrying them up with me, in order that in
any case my journey might not be quite useless.

It was during my afternoon journey on the day in question that, having
reached the summit of the Peak and sent a long, searching, but fruitless
look round the horizon, I turned to descend by a short cut which my
frequent passages down had beaten in the loose, friable soil, when I was
arrested in the very act of plunging down the slope, and my blood turned
to ice, by the sight of a great war canoe crowded with natives, just
emerging from under the cover of the western cliffs and heading
southward, as though bound for our little harbour. As I still stood
gaping at her, scarcely able to credit the evidence of my eyes, another,
and another, and another followed, making four in all, each manned by
some forty or fifty natives. They had been creeping along so close
inshore that at first they had been invisible to me, hidden by the high
cliffs; but a curve of the shore line had caused them to head out a
little farther to the westward, and so brought them within my range of
vision.

Suddenly I became aware of signs of commotion in the leading canoe.
There was a cessation of paddling, arms were uplifted and flourished,
and the next moment I realised with horror that my figure, standing out
clear and clean-cut against the pure azure of the sky, had been
detected. The natives were pointing and directing each other's
attention to me; indeed, I almost believed th