till he did not give up, for he knew that sooner or later the savages
would land again.

Yet many months passed, and still they did not come, till one morning,
very early, almost to his surprise, he saw no fewer than five canoes
hauled up on the shore on his own side of the island. The savages who
had come in them were nowhere to be seen. Now, he knew that always
from four to six men came in each canoe, which meant that at least
twenty, and perhaps as many as thirty men had landed.

This was a greater number than he cared to face, so he kept inside his
castle, in great doubt what to do, but ready to fight, in case they
should attack him.

When he had waited a long time and still could hear nothing of the
savages, he climbed up his ladder and got to the top of the rock,
taking great care not to show himself against the skyline. Looking
through his glass, he saw that there were at least thirty savages,
dancing wildly round a fire.

As he looked, some of the men left the others, and going over to the
canoes dragged from' them two prisoners. One of these almost at once
fell forward on his face, knocked down from behind, as it seemed to
Robinson, with a wooden club, and two or three of the cannibals at
once cut him open to be ready for cooking, while for a moment or two
they left the other prisoner standing by himself.

Seeing a chance of escape, the man made a dash for his life, running
with tremendous speed along the sands straight for that part of the
beach near Robinson's castle.

Now this alarmed Robinson very much, for it seemed to him that the
whole of the savages started after the prisoner. He could not help
thinking it likely that, as in his dream, this man would take shelter
in the thicket round the castle, in which case Robinson was likely
soon to have more fighting than he would relish, for the whole body of
the cannibals would be on him at once.

As he watched the poor man racing for life, however, he was relieved
to see that he ran much faster than his pursuers, of whom only three
continued to run after him. If he could hold out for another mile or
two there was little doubt that he would escape. Between the castle
and the runners was the creek up which Robinson used to run his rafts
from the wreck, and when the escaped prisoner came to that, he plunged
in, and though the tide was full, with less than thirty powerful
strokes he reached the other side, and with long easy strides
continued his run. Of th