vages turned at once and fled--such of them at least as were
not already exhausted by their run up hill--and the rest, consisting
chiefly of old men and children, fell on their knees and faces and
howled for mercy.

As soon as the charging host became aware of the character of the enemy,
they came came to a sudden halt.

"Sure it's owld men and women we're about to kill!" cried Captain Rigg,
lowering his formidable forehammer, with which, in default of a better
weapon, he had armed himself, "but hooray! Gineral, there may be lots
o' the warrior reptiles in among the huts, and them poor craturs have
been sent out to decaive us."

"That's true. Forward my lads!" shouted Ole--and again the army
charged--nor did they stop short until they had taken possession of the
village, when they found that all the fighting men were gone.

This being happily accomplished without blood shed, Ole Thorwald, like a
wise general, took the necessary steps to insure and complete his
conquest. He seized all the women and children and shut them up in a
huge temple built of palm-trees and roofed with broad leaves. This
edifice was devoted to the horrible practice of cutting up human bodies
that were intended to be eaten.

Ole had often heard of the cannibalism that is practised by most of the
South Sea islanders, though some tribes are worse than others, but he
had never before this day come directly in contact with it. Here,
however, there could be no doubt whatever of the fact. Portions of
human bodies were strewn about this hideous temple--some parts in a raw
and bloody condition, as if they had just been cut from a lately slain
victim; others in a baked state as if ready to form part of some
terrible banquet.

Sick at heart, Ole Thorwald turned from this sight with loathing.
Concluding that the natives who practised such things could not be very
much distressed by being shut up for a time in a temple dedicated to the
gratification of their own disgusting tastes, he barricaded the entrance
securely, placed a guard over it, and hurried away to see that two other
buildings, in which the remainder of the women and children had been
imprisoned, were similarly secured and guarded. Meanwhile the stalwart
knight of the forehammer, to whom the duty had been assigned, placed
sentries at the various entrances to the village, and disposed his men
in such a way as to prevent the possibility of being taken by surprise.

These various arrang