My first feeling was one of simple annoyance with the three men who
constituted the boat's crew, because they had permitted themselves to be
cajoled into visiting the village and leaving the boat unprotected upon
the beach, instead of returning to the ship immediately after landing
the skipper, as I had instructed them to do. But when a full hour had
elapsed, with no sign of the return of the truants, my annoyance began
to give place to a feeling of rapidly growing anxiety; and when that
hour grew to two, with still no sign of the absentees, my anxiety merged
into a feeling of downright alarm--nay, more than alarm, into a
conviction that something very serious had happened.
And now I found myself in an exceedingly awkward predicament; for while
I felt that something ought to be done, I could not, for the life of me,
decide what that something should be. Two alternatives suggested
themselves, one being to arm all hands to the teeth, launch the gig, and
go ashore to investigate; while the other was to remain aboard and
prepare the schooner in every possible way to repel an attack, and at
the same time to have everything ready for flight at a moment's notice,
if need be. The former was undoubtedly the proper thing to do, if one
were to act upon the assumption that the natives had seized the white
men who had landed, and were holding them as prisoners; but such an
assumption was scarcely justified by the reputation which the Marquesas
natives had earned for themselves, the story in circulation with regard
to them being to the effect that it was their custom promptly to kill
and eat any unfortunate whites who chanced to fall into their hands. If
the six men who had been decoyed ashore that morning were already dead,
nothing was to be gained by landing the remainder of the _Martha's_
crew, except the infliction upon the natives of a sharp punishment--at a
considerable amount of risk to ourselves of further loss in the pitched
battle which would assuredly ensue.
Also there was the possibility--nay, more, the very strong probability--
that while we were busily engaged on shore in the attempt to administer
salutary chastisement for the betrayal of our shipmates, a party of
natives might board the unprotected schooner, slip her cable, and run
her ashore; and then where should we be, with no means of retreat
excepting our boats, which would doubtless also be seized? If we could
only get hold of a native and ascertain from him what had become of the
absentees we should know what to do: for if the missing men were merely
prisoners we should be fully justified in taking the risk of attempting
to rescue them; but if, on the other hand, they were already dead, the
question of punishment might very well be left until a more fitting
moment. But now there was not a solitary native to be seen anywhere,
which, in my opinion, was a decidedly bad sign.
The arrival of noon--by which hour the skipper fully expected to be back
aboard the ship, but was not--found me still undecided upon the question
of landing; but I had so far made up my mind that I had determined to
arm all hands and put the schooner into as efficient a state of defence
as possible. Accordingly I gave orders to have the arms and ammunition
chests brought on deck, and instructed each man--there were only eight
of us, all told, now--to arm himself with a cutlass and a brace of fully
loaded revolvers, and also to have a loaded gun where he could put his
hand upon it at a moment's notice. Next I caused all fore-and-aft
canvas to be loosed, all downhauls cast off, and all halyards ready for
hoisting away at a moment's notice; and when these orders had been duly
executed it seemed to me that we had done everything that was possible.
Yet the schooner was still in a very defenceless condition, so far as
resisting the simultaneous attack of several hundred determined natives
was concerned: we might empty our firearms upon them, and if every shot
told--which was most unlikely, in the excitement attendant upon an
attack--we should kill or wound precisely fifty-six of them; after which
the eight of us would be fighting, hand to hand, with the remainder, who
would outnumber us by at least twenty to one, and probably twice that
number! What chance would we have under such conditions as those?
Absolutely none at all. If, now, it were possible to raise the
schooner's bulwarks, or to render them unclimbable in some way!
As I considered this the thought of the trawl net which the skipper had
brought along for the purpose of dredging up the pearl-oysters occurred
to me, and I instantly decided that it might, with a little ingenuity,
be converted into an excellent boarding netting. It was made of extra
stout hemp line, to resist the cutting action of the oyster shells over
which it was proposed to be dragged, and also to bring up a good heavy
load without bursting, and I at once recognised that if there was enough
of it to trice up all round the schooner--and I believed there was--it
might serve to keep the natives off our decks long enough to enable us
to give them so severe a punishing as to cool their ardour effectually
and ultimately beat them off. The idea was too good not to be utilised
at once; and I gave instructions to have the net immediately routed out
and brought on deck. It was a big, heavy affair, and it took the eight
of us the best part of half an hour to clear it out of the sail-room and
get it on deck; but when at length we had done so I at once saw that,
with a certain amount of cutting and contriving, it might be made to
serve its new purpose very excellently: and forthwith all hands of us
fell upon it, and by eight bells in the afternoon watch had converted it
into an exceedingly efficient boarding net. Then we triced it up, and
felt that at last we were ready for whatever the fates--and the
natives--might have in store for us.
Meanwhile the jollyboat still lay abandoned upon the beach, and no sign
of her crew or of the skipper and his two companions had been seen; nor
had the strictest scrutiny, with the aid of the ship's telescope,
revealed any indication of natives ashore: in fact, so far as
appearances alone were concerned, the island might have been
uninhabited. But the continued absence of our shipmates, now prolonged
far beyond all reasonable limits, left no doubt in any of our minds that
something very seriously wrong had happened to them; and but for the
circumstance that we were in complete ignorance as to what that
happening really was, and the hope that some of them at least might
still be alive, I would at once have got the schooner under way and gone
to sea. But to do that was impossible while their fate was still in
doubt; for not even to ensure our own safety against the attack that we
were all convinced was impending could we do that which would amount to
the abandonment of possibly living white men to the mercy of the
savages.
With the tricing up and securing of the boarding netting our
preparations for the defence of the schooner were completed to the best
of our ability; and now all that remained was for us to sit down and
passively await events, which, in the present case, meant an attack by
the savages at any moment after darkness had fallen sufficiently to
conceal their movements. But, that we might be as fully prepared as
possible, I gave instructions for the advancement of the supper hour, so
that we might partake of that meal while there was still light enough to
enable us to see our surroundings; and after that we busied ourselves
about a general straightening up of the decks and the removal of all
unnecessary hamper, in order that, if fight we must, we might at least
fight with clear decks.
Fortunately for us the night fell fine and clear, with brilliant
starlight which enabled us to see all round the ship for a distance of
about a couple of hundred yards; but inshore of us the shadow of the
island lay jet-black upon the surface of the water, completely hiding
all evidence of movement in that direction, even when I attempted to
probe the blackness with the night glass. Therefore we were obliged to
trust quite as much to our ears as to our eyes for warning of the
approach of an enemy; but even they did not help us much, for the island
was but a small one, and the thunder of the surf upon its weather shore,
borne to us with almost startling distinctness, mingled with the sough
of the wind among the trees and the lap of the ripples alongside, making
with these a combination of sound that effectually screened any such
movement as the launching of a canoe or the distant dip of paddles. I
foresaw that this was likely to be a wakeful night for me, for with such
a heavy load of responsibility upon my young shoulders I could not
possibly have slept, even upon a bed of down. I therefore instructed
the men to bring their beds on deck and snatch such rest as might come
to them, while I kept a lookout. Also I made a point of striking the
ship's bell regularly every half-hour, in the faint hope that if the
savages could be brought to realise that we were upon the alert they
might, after all, decide not to risk an attack.
With incredible slowness the laggard moments passed; the second
dog-watch came to an end; and then, still more slowly, as it seemed to
my impatience, first one, then two, three, four, and so on up to eight
bells of the first watch were tolled out, and still there were no signs
of the enemy. And all this while I was continuously padding round the
decks in a pair of old felt-soled slippers, which effectually silenced
my footsteps upon the planking, pausing for a moment at every half-dozen
steps to peer anxiously but in vain into the shadow of the island for
some indication of movement. Finally four bells of the middle watch
arrived, and their passage was duly recorded by the strokes of the
ship's bell. Meanwhile the stress of the day's anxiety, combined with
my continuous and monotonous perambulation of the deck, and no doubt
assisted by the soft coolness of the offshore breeze, laden with the
odours of earth and vegetation, and the constant booming sound of the
distant surf, was beginning to tell upon me; my jarred nerves had become
steady, my breathing had become deep and regular, my limbs were growing
weary, and my eyelids began occasionally to droop; in short, I was
beginning to feel fatigued and in need of sleep.
This, then, was evidently the moment at which to attempt to snatch a
little rest, and I was debating within myself which of the men I should
call to relieve me, or rather which of them I could best trust to keep
an alert lookout, when I fancied I caught, just for an instant out of
the corner of my eye, a faint, silvery gleam, as of the phosphorescence
of disturbed water, deep in the heart of the darkest shadow in the
direction of the beach. I looked more closely, and presently saw again,
this time quite distinctly, the rippling, moon-like gleam of water
disturbed as it might be by the launching of a boat or a canoe. Yes,
there was no mistake about it, there was undoubtedly a movement of some
sort in there; and even as I came to this conclusion I saw the thing
repeated twice, thrice, five or six times, with spaces of a few yards
between. That was enough; at last the savages were on the move, and in
a moment my fatigue fell from me like a garment, and I was once again
the incarnation of alertness. Without making a sound I glided along the
deck in my old soft slippers, and, laying my hand lightly upon each
sleeper's shoulder, murmured in his ear: "The enemy is under way! Go to
your station as noiselessly as possible, taking your gun with you; and
do not fire until I give the word."
By the time that I had awakened my little band, and had seen each man at
his proper station, it had become perfectly apparent that eight canoes
were stealing slowly out toward us from the beach; for although they
were still enveloped in deep shadow, and were being paddled so
cautiously that not the faintest suspicion of a sound could be heard, it
was possible for us to see distinctly, in the midst of the blackness,
eight separate points of disturbance, each indicated by short, wavering
lines of phosphorescent light, marking the slight ripple created by the
gentle passage of some object through the water, in addition to which an
occasional small luminous swirl indicated the stealthy dip of a paddle
in the water at infrequent intervals. The excessive caution with which
they were making their approach seemed to suggest an intention on the
part of the savages to get as near as possible to the schooner
unobserved, with probably a quick dash at the end to cover the last
hundred feet or so of water.
Crouching low behind the bulwarks, and levelling the ship's night glass
over the rail, I kept the instrument slowly sweeping athwart the
advancing line of craft, and at length saw eight large canoes gradually
take shape as they drew imperceptibly out of the heart of the deepest
shadow. I endeavoured to count the number of occupants, but soon found
this to be impossible in the dim light. I made a rough guess, however,
and came to the conclusion that there were at least twenty in each
canoe; it was evident therefore that, despite our superiority in the
matter of weapons, there was a desperate struggle in store for us. I
waited patiently until the canoes had approached us near enough to
enable us to distinguish the loom of them with the unaided eye, and
then, springing up on the wheel grating, I suddenly hailed:
"Canoes ahoy! Keep off there! If you attempt to come any nearer I will
open fire upon you."
A complete cessation of paddling immediately followed my hail. Possibly
the savages were a trifle chagrined to discover that we were on the
alert, or perhaps they did not fully understand what I had said--
although I did not believe that, for most of the South Sea natives knew
enough of English to enable an Englishman to make himself understood.
Be that as it may, they paused long enough to enable me to call to the
little band of defenders a final instruction.
"Don't fire, lads," I said, "until you can see your mark distinctly.
Then aim carefully, and make every shot tell. Much will depend upon the
effect of our first volley, which we must therefore make as deadly as
possible."
A low murmur of comprehension arose from the scanty crew ranged at wide
intervals along the schooner's port rail, that being the side which the
natives were approaching. But before anything more could be said, a
loud shout--in a voice the tones of which seemed somehow familiar to
me--arose from one of the canoes, and was instantly answered by a yell
that, from its volume of sound, must have emanated from the throats of
nearly or quite two hundred savages; and then, without further attempt
at concealment, a whole host of paddles suddenly dashed into the water,
lashing it into long, swirling lines of luminous foam, and, with loud
cries of mutual encouragement from the occupants, the eight big canoes
surged forward and came rushing through the water at the schooner.
"Keep cool, men," I shouted above the din: "pick your mark; aim into the
thick of them; and load and fire as many times as you can before they
can get alongside." And forthwith I led off with a shot aimed straight
at the centre of the dark mass which represented the nearest canoe, at
that moment distant about two hundred and fifty yards. My aim was true,
and my bullet must have found a double mark, for two distinct shrieks
responded a bare moment before a ragged volley of seven shots rang out
from the rest of the defenders. More shrieks followed this discharge,
but it did not stop the rush of the canoes, which now came sweeping
toward us like so many steamers. Meanwhile I was busily engaged in
slipping another cartridge into the breach of my piece, calculating upon
being able to get in two more shots before the savages arrived
alongside. And so, as a matter of fact, I did, as also did some of the
others, with disastrous results for the savages, if the shrieks that
followed upon each discharge were to be accepted as any criterion; and,
apart from that, there was a noticeable wavering and hesitation on the
part of the crews of two or three of the canoes after that third
discharge. But the hesitation was only momentary; then the rascals
gripped their courage afresh and drove their canoes alongside, four
dashing up on our port side, and the remaining four essaying to board us
to starboard. And when the canoes were within about four or five
fathoms of the schooner's side, with good way upon them, the savages
suddenly laid in their paddles and, rising to their feet, hurled a heavy
shower of spears at us, every one of which flew harmlessly over our
heads, luckily for us.
Then the heavy night air suddenly became vibrant with a medley of harsh,
discordant sounds, compounded of the yells and shrieks of the savages,
the fierce ejaculations of our own people, the quick, snapping
explosions of revolvers, and the gasping groans of the wounded, as the
natives swarmed up our low sides and suddenly found themselves
confronted by the barrier of our improvised boarding net, through the
meshes of which our lads pointed their revolvers and thrust furiously
with their cutlasses, while the savages unavailingly strove to tear the
stout strands apart and make an opening through which to pass, or thrust
at us in their turn with their spears. Suddenly, in the dim starlight,
as I was busily reloading my revolver, I saw the cook emerge from the
galley with what looked like a bucket in his hand. With a quick twirl
he seemed to throw the contents of this bucket through the net just
where the savages were crowding thickest on the other side of it, and
the next instant there arose a more than usually piercing chorus of
shrieks, while the great bulk of the savages at that particular point
appeared to melt away suddenly, and I heard the heavy impact of a number
of bodies falling headlong into the canoes alongside.
The "Doctor" paused a moment, apparently to note the effect of his
experiment, and then he hastily returned to the galley, presently
emerging again and repeating his former tactics with similar results. I
subsequently learned that, when it became known that an attack of the
savages might be certainly looked for, the cook had lighted a rousing
fire in his galley, filled his coppers with a mixture of slush and salt
water, and brought the whole to the boil, so arranging the matter that
the mixture was in a state of furious ebullition by the time the savages
arrived alongside. And wherever the blacks pressed thickest and most
determinedly, there Cooky intervened with a bucketful of his scalding
stuff, which he very effectively distributed over the naked bodies of a
round dozen or so of our assailants by giving the bucket a neat twirl at
the instant of discharge.
But despite the effective aid thus rendered, matters were, on the whole,
going rather badly for us, for two American forecastle hands were by
this time down, transfixed by spears which pinned them to the deck,
while the sailmaker and I were each punctured and bleeding freely, Sails
having received a bad prick in his left shoulder, while a spear had
passed completely through the fleshy part of my right thigh; in addition
to which a party of savages, by concentrating their efforts upon one
particular spot, had contrived to make a hole in the net, which they
were rapidly enlarging. Of this last fact I was happily unaware, as
indeed I was of the critical character of our situation generally, for
it was forward, where Murdock, the ex-boatswain of the _Zenobia_, was in
charge, that matters were going so badly, while aft, where I was, we
were doing pretty well.
But Murdock was not the sort of man to be discouraged because for the
moment he happened to be getting the worst of it; on the contrary, it
was just that state of things that stirred him to extra effort, and it
did so now. Perceiving that, unless something were done to prevent them
effectively, the savages would soon force their way through the net--and
thereafter make short work of all hands of us--Murdock sets his wits
going, and presently thought out a plan which he immediately proceeded
to put into operation. Seizing a half-empty case of revolver
ammunition, he broke open about a dozen cartridges and arranged the
powder in a little heap at the bottom of the case, burying one end of a
length of extemporised fuse in the heap. Then he piled the cartridges
on the top of the heap, placed the case on the windlass bitts, ignited
the free end of the fuse, and rushed aft, yelling to us to throw
ourselves flat upon our faces as he did so.
So urgent was his call that we all instinctively obeyed it; and there we
lay for perhaps ten or fifteen seconds, while the savages, seeing the
weak point suddenly deserted, swarmed about it in greatly augmented
numbers, finally enlarging the hole in the net to such an extent that at
length it was big enough to permit the passage of a man, when one after
another they began to force their way through. It was at this precise
moment that the spark of the burning fuse reached the powder, which of
course instantly blew up, igniting the hundred or so of cartridges that
remained in the case, and scattering the bullets in them in all
directions. There was a quick flash of the ignited powder, immediately
followed by the cracker-like reports of the exploding cartridges, a
horrible chorus of yells and shrieks of wounded men, and then--sudden,
complete silence, for the space of perhaps half a dozen breaths. Then
came renewed groans and outcries, as the injured men felt the first
smart of their wounds, followed by a sudden wailing cry, and with one
accord the panic-stricken savages flung themselves back into their
canoes, seized their paddles, and headed for the shore in frantic haste,
being presently sped upon their way by the bullets which we poured into
their midst as long as they remained in sight.
Then, and not until then, we laid aside our weapons, mopped the
perspiration and powder grime from our streaming brows, bound up each
other's wounds, and went forward to inspect the results of Murdock's
little experiment. It had been exceedingly effective, for scattered
round the spot where the explosion had occurred we found no less than
nineteen savages, of whom eleven were dead, five were more or less
severely wounded, and three appeared to be only stunned. These three we
promptly proceeded to bind hand and foot, during which operation we
discovered that one of the trio was none other than friend Oahika, our
"bumboat man in or'nary", as the skipper had styled him. I was
especially glad that this particular rascal had fallen into our hands,
for during the progress of the fight I had frequently caught sight of
him, by the light afforded by the flash of our revolvers, and had
noticed that he was taking an exceptionally prominent part in the
proceedings; while one or two circumstances which I had also noticed led
me to suspect that he might possibly be a person of some importance
among the natives of Roua Poua.
And now, as with the assistance of three lanterns we proceeded with our
investigations, the really desperate character of the struggle in which
we had so recently been engaged began to be borne in upon us; for, in
addition to the nineteen who had fallen victims to the boatswain's
contrivance, we found scattered about the ship twenty-six dead, and
thirty-three more or less wounded natives; while others--with whom the
sharks were already busy--were floating in the water near the ship. As
for ourselves, we had lost two foremast hands, both of them Americans,
while the remainder of us, with the solitary exception of the cook, had
each his scratch to show, my own and the sailmaker's being, fortunately,
the only wounds that could be reasonably termed serious, while even they
were of comparatively little moment, provided that gangrene did not
supervene.
And now, the natives having been beaten off, our next task was to
straighten up after the fight, and a beginning was made by throwing all
the dead--except our own two--overboard, where the sharks might be
safely trusted to see to their speedy disposal. Then we overhauled the
wounded savages: and such of them as had received only trifling hurts,
and might therefore perhaps yet give us trouble if we were not careful,
we bound securely; while the others we laid out on deck, and then
proceeded to doctor up as well as our means and our very limited
surgical knowledge permitted.
It was while we were all thus busily engaged that the boatswain,
happening to straighten his back for a moment and cast an alert glance
across the water toward the shore, suddenly stood rigid and staring, and
then remarked to me, in a low tone of voice:
"Just look over there for a minute, Mr Temple. Ain't that a canoe or
somethin' headin' this way?"
I looked in the direction indicated, and at once sighted a small,
shapeless blot of deeper blackness in the shadow that enshrouded the
whole of the west side of the island. But if it was a canoe it was
certainly a very small craft; moreover, it was not coming from the
direction of the beach, but from a point apparently about a mile to the
north of it. We stood watching it for a full minute, or more, and then
I caught the now familiar phosphorescent gleam of water which indicated
the presence of a moving object.
"Yes," I said, "it certainly is a canoe, Murdock; but she seems to be
only a very small affair, such as need give us no very serious amount of
anxiety. We will keep an eye upon her for a minute or two and see what
she is after. Perhaps it is a messenger from the natives coming off to
treat with us for the surrender of the wounded. I hope it may be,
because then we shall perhaps learn what has become of the skipper and
the rest of the missing men."
As the canoe continued to approach, we observed a certain eccentricity
in her behaviour, for instead of progressing in a straight line her
course was a decided _zigzag_, now heading one way and now another, to
the extent of about four points of the compass; still it looked as
though she was aiming for the schooner, for her general direction of
approach was toward us. I procured the night glass and brought it to
bear upon her, and was then able to distinguish that she was indeed an
exceedingly diminutive craft, containing only one figure, who seemed to
be sitting in her stern, and was paddling somewhat awkwardly, first on
one side of her and then on the other, which probably accounted for her
eccentricity of movement. Furthermore, as I continued to watch, a
certain suggestion of familiarity grew upon me in connection with the
appearance and actions of the paddling figure; and finally, when the
canoe had approached to within about a hundred fathoms of the schooner,
I put down the glass and hailed:
"Canoe ahoy! what canoe is that?"
"Hillo! is that you, Temple?" came the reply in Cunningham's well-known
voice.
"Ay, ay," I replied, "it is I, right enough. And glad I am to see that
you are all right. Do you happen to know anything about the skipper?"
"Got him here, in the bottom of the canoe," was the reply. "The poor
old chap is rather badly hurt, I'm afraid. Con-found this canoe! Why
won't the wretched thing go straight?"
"It is because you don't understand how to handle her, I expect,"
replied I. "Do you know anything about the three men who took you
ashore yesterday?"
"No," answered Cunningham. "Didn't they return to the ship?"
"They did not; and I am very much afraid that we shall never set eyes
upon them again."
"Phew!" whistled Cunningham; "that's bad news, although I'm not very
greatly surprised to hear it after the way that the beggars ashore
behaved--Hillo! what's this? Why--I say, Temple, there's a dead native
floating about out here. What's the meaning of that?"
"It means that a determined attempt to capture the schooner was made,
about two hours ago, and was very near being successful," said I. "Do
you mean to say that you did not hear the rumpus?"
"Not a sound of it," answered Cunningham. "But of course that may be
accounted for by--but one can talk about that later. Just heave me a
rope's end, there's a good chap, and--I say, how are we going to get the
skipper up on deck? He's rather badly hurt, and can't manage without
assistance, I'm afraid."
The canoe was by this time close aboard of us, and a few seconds later
she was brought alongside with the aid of the line which I hove to
Cunningham. Then I dropped lightly over the side into her, to see what
could be done to help Brown, who all this time had remained perfectly
silent. I found him propped up in the eyes of the little craft, and
when I stooped over him I saw that his eyes were closed, as though he
slept. But according to Cunningham it was not sleep, it was
insensibility, resulting from a blow on the head with a heavy club. In
any case the poor old fellow was obviously quite unable to help himself.
I therefore took the rope's end which I had thrown to Cunningham, made
a standing bowline in the end of it, passed it under the skipper's arms,
and then sang out to those on deck to hoist away gently, while
Cunningham and I helped by lifting. Thus presently we managed to get
Brown first on deck and then down into his own stateroom, where
Cunningham, who claimed to possess a certain amateurish skill and
knowledge in medicine and surgery, at once took him in hand, while I
returned to the deck and assisted the others in the task of
straightening up generally.
By the time we had finished the young dawn was paling the eastern sky,
and the island, from being a mere shapeless black shadow, had changed to
a deep neutral-tinted--almost black--silhouette, as clear and sharp of
outline as though it had been cut out of paper, its equally dark
reflection trembling on the surface of the water, and coming and going
almost as far out as where the schooner lay at anchor. Then, even as I
stood watching, the pallor brightened to a clear, pale tint of purest
primrose, which presently flushed into a warm, delicate orange hue; a
long shaft of white light shot straight up toward the zenith, and an
instant later the topmast branches of the trees that crowned the island
became edged with a thin hair-line of burning gold, which spread with
marvellous rapidity north and south until every limb and trunk glowed
with it. Finally a level beam of golden light flashed through a dense
clump of foliage that crowned the highest point of the island, and the
next instant that same clump became swallowed up and lost in a great,
dazzling, palpitating blaze of golden light, which was the body of the
rising sun; the colour of the island changed from neutral tint to deep
sepia, and from that to innumerable subtle tones of olive and green, as
the light grew stronger, and the masses of foliage separated themselves
from each other and became distinct, until the shape of each became
perfectly defined and took its proper place in the picture. And while
these magical colour changes were in progress the deep shadow which
marked the junction of land and water dissolved until the beach once
more emerged into view, with the jollyboat still hauled up on it where
she had been left on the previous day, and round about her, to left and
right, eight big canoes, undoubtedly those which had been used in the
attack upon the schooner a few hours earlier.
While I still stood gazing, entranced, at the beauty of the new day,
Cunningham emerged from the companion way and joined me.
"Well," he said, "you will be glad to hear that I think we shall pull
the poor old skipper through, after all. I started to give him a
thorough overhaul as soon as you left me; and I found that those
murdering thieves of natives had literally cracked the poor old chap's
skull for him. I also found that a tiny splinter of bone had been
driven inward upon the brain by the force of the blow; and this splinter
I succeeded in extracting, with the result that he emerged from his
state of coma, and, after I had properly dressed his wound, went to
sleep."