r trees, and Stenhouse felt pretty
certain that the burying party would pick upon one of these spots to
inter the bodies, and that he could easily cut them off from the boats.

Swiftly and silently they took up a position on the banks of the creek,
Stenhouse with his two friends keenly watching the advancing boats
from behind the buttressed roots of a giant Indian fig-tree. In a few
minutes, the leading boat, in which were six men and an officer, entered
the creek, but the water being shallow, grounded on the bar, and the
crew got out. The second boat contained four seamen, and three or four
persons who were seated aft, and she too took the ground, and then,
as her crew stepped out into the water, Stenhouse gripped Adams by the
shoulder.

"See, Tom, there he is! The man himself. Look! that big fellow with
the white whiskers, sitting between the others." He held a hurried
consultation with his comrades, and quickly decided on his course of
action.

Both crews were now endeavouring to drag the boats across the shallow
bar into the deeper water beyond, but the task was too much for them,
and presently the captain, who was in the second boat, ordered them to
cease, and said something to the big, white-whiskered man, who nodded
his head in approval.

Four seamen then lifted two coffins from the first boat, and, followed
by four others carrying their own and their shipmates' arms and some
spades, began wading through the water to the shore, directly to where
the unseen watchers lay awaiting; and the remainder of the party,
leaving the boats with two men on guard, came slowly after them.

Stenhouse pointed to the two boat-keepers, and said something to Ford,
who, with half-a-dozen natives, quickly disappeared.

In a few minutes the bearers of the coffins reached the shore, and
placed their burdens on the ground to await further orders.

"We shall find clear ground, sir, within a few yards from the bank,"
began the captain, addressing the tall man, who with bared head and slow
step walked by his side, when suddenly there came a rush of a score of
half-naked figures, who threw themselves silently upon the party, and
overcame them almost without a sound.

"Surrender, or you are all dead men," cried a hoarse voice.

There was no need for the stern summons, for not only were the
astonished sailors terrified by the extraordinary suddenness of the
attack and the savage appearance of their captors, but their captain,
the su