"Defied us! did he?" cried the mate with a bitter laugh. "Poor,
contemptible thing!"

"And yet he seems not so contemptible but that you are afraid to attack
him."

"Who said I was afraid?" growled the mate sulkily. "I'm as ready as any
man in the ship. But, captain, what is it that you intend to do?"

"I intend to muffle the sweeps and row the schooner up to the head of
the creek there, from which point we can command the pile of sandal-wood
with our gun. Then I shall land with all the men except two, who shall
take care of the schooner and be ready with the boat to take us off. We
can creep through the woods to the head of the village, where these
cannibals are always dancing round their suppers of human flesh; and if
the carbines of the men are loaded with a heavy charge of buck-shot, we
can drop forty or fifty at the first volley. After that the thing will
be easy enough. The savages will take to the mountains in a body, and
we shall take what we require, up anchor, and away."

To this plan the mate at length agreed. As he left the cabin, I heard
the captain say:

"Give the men an extra glass of grog, and don't forget the buck-shot."

The reader may conceive the horror with which I heard this murderous
conversation. I immediately repeated it to Bill, who seemed much
perplexed about it. At length he said:

"I'll tell you what I'll do, Ralph. I'll swim ashore after dark and fix
a musket to a tree not far from the place where we'll have to land, and
I'll tie a long string to the trigger, so that when our fellows cross it
they'll let it off, and so alarm the village in time to prevent an
attack, but not in time to prevent us gettin' back to the boat.--So,
Master Captain," added Bill with a smile that, for the first time,
seemed to me to be mingled with good-natured cheerfulness, "you'll be
balked at least for once in your life by Bloody Bill."

After it grew dark, Bill put this resolve in practice. He slipped over
the side with a musket in his left hand, while with his right he swam
ashore and entered the woods. He soon returned, having accomplished his
purpose, and got on board without being seen, I being the only one on
deck.

When the hour of midnight approached, the men were mustered on deck, the
cable was cut, and the muffled sweeps got out. These sweeps were
immensely large oars, each requiring a couple of men to work it. In a
few minutes we entered the mouth of the creek, which was ind