h a wave of the hand--"go tell your captain that he may
cut wood to-day, but not to-morrow. He must come ashore; I want to have
a palaver with him."

As we left the house to return to the woods, Bill shook his head.

"There's mischief brewin' in that black rascal's head. I know him of
old. But what comes here?"

As he spoke, we heard the sound of laughter and shouting in the wood,
and presently there issued from it a band of savages, in the midst of
whom were a number of men bearing burdens on their shoulders. At first
I thought that these burdens were poles with something rolled round
them, the end of each pole resting on a man's shoulder; but on a nearer
approach I saw that they were human beings, tied hand and foot, and so
lashed to the poles that they could not move. I counted twenty of them
as they passed.

"More murder!" said Bill in a voice that sounded between a hoarse laugh
and a groan.

"Surely they are not going to murder them?" said I, looking anxiously
into Bill's face.

"I don't know, Ralph," replied Bill, "what they're goin' to do with
them; but I fear they mean no good when they tie fellows up in that
way."

As we continued our way towards the woodcutters, I observed that Bill
looked anxiously over his shoulder in the direction where the procession
had disappeared. At last he stopped, and turning abruptly on his heel,
said:

"I tell ye what it is, Ralph: I must be at the bottom o' that affair.
Let us follow these black scoundrels and see what they're goin' to do."

I must say I had no wish to pry further into their bloody practices; but
Bill seemed bent on it, so I turned and went. We passed rapidly through
the bush, being guided in the right direction by the shouts of the
savages. Suddenly there was a dead silence, which continued for some
time, while Bill and I involuntarily quickened our pace until we were
running at the top of our speed across the narrow neck of land
previously mentioned. As we reached the verge of the wood we discovered
the savages surrounding the large war-canoe, which they were apparently
on the point of launching. Suddenly the multitude put their united
strength to the canoe; but scarcely had the huge machine begun to move
when a yell, the most appalling that ever fell upon my ear, rose high
above the shouting of the savages. It had not died away when another
and another smote upon my throbbing ear, and then I saw that these
inhuman monsters were actually l