d parts of the valley, numbers joined
them from every side, running with animated cries from every pathway. So
excited were the whole party, that, eager as Toby was to gain the beach,
it was almost as much as he could do to keep up with them. Making the
valley ring with their shouts, they hurried along on a swift trot, those
in advance pausing now and then, and flourishing their weapons to urge the
rest forward.

Presently they came to a place where the path crossed a bend of the main
stream of the valley. Here a strange sound came through the grove beyond,
and the islanders halted. It was Mow-Mow, the one-eyed chief, who had gone
on before; he was striking his heavy lance against the hollow bough of a
tree.

This was a signal of alarm;--for nothing was now heard but shouts of
"Happar! Happar!"--the warriors tilting with their spears and brandishing
them in the air, and the women and boys shouting to each other, and
picking up the stones in the bed of the stream. In a moment or two Mow-Mow
and two or three other chiefs ran out from the grove, and the din
increased tenfold.

Now, thought Toby, for a fray; and being unarmed, he besought one of the
young men domiciled with Marheyo for the loan of his spear. But he was
refused; the youth roguishly telling him, that the weapon was very good
for him (the Typee), but that a white man could fight much better with his
fists.

The merry humour of this young wag seemed to be shared by the rest, for in
spite of their warlike cries and gestures, everybody was capering about
and laughing, as if it was one of the funniest things in the world to be
awaiting the flight of a score or two of Happar javelins from an ambush in
the thickets.

While my comrade was in vain trying to make out the meaning of all this, a
good number of the natives separated themselves from the rest and ran off
into the grove on one side, the others now keeping perfectly still, as if
awaiting the result. After a little while, however, Mow-Mow, who stood in
advance, motioned them to come on stealthily, which they did, scarcely
rustling a leaf. Thus they crept along for ten or fifteen minutes, every
now and then pausing to listen.

Toby by no means relished this sort of skulking; if there was going to be
a fight he wanted it to begin at once. But all in good time,--for just
then, as they went prowling into the thickest of the wood, terrific howls
burst upon them on all sides, and volleys of darts and stones f