"Yes; but what's the good of talking about that now?"
"I was only thinking, sir. Here's you and me making no end of a fuss, and starving, and all the rest of it, and getting into a state o'
melancholy, because we've lost our way, while these poor ignorant savages go about without any clothes, and regularly enjoy themselves in the same place."
"Yes, Ned, they are a deal cleverer than we are after all."
"That they ain't, sir. We've only got to use our brains more, and we can beat 'em hollow. I ain't going to dump it any more. It's like saying a nigger's a better man than a white; and he ain't. Now then, as the boy in the book I once read used to say, take it coolly, and let's see if we haven't got more brains than they have."
"Very well, Ned; but now, if we don't mind, they'll kill us."
"Then we will mind, sir. I should like to catch 'em at it. First thing is we must now be cool. Well, we've got enough for to-morrow, only those snakes are watching it. Well, while we're waiting for those niggers to go by, let's give the snakes notice to quit."
"How? Pelt 'em?"
"There; look at him!" said Ned. "Only wants a bit of thinking. Come on, sir, we can do it as we lie here; they'll soon scatter."
"But suppose they come this way?"
"Throw at 'em again, sir. Ready?"
There were plenty of loose fragments of lava lying about in the sandy soil, stones which had doubtless been ejected by the volcano, to fall upon its slopes, and which had in course of time been washed lower and lower, and armed with these, they began to pelt the sides of the fire, the effect being wonderfully speedy. As the first stones fell there was a strange rustling and hissing, heads were raised menacingly up, and as a second couple fell the reptiles began to move off rapidly.
"Two biggest coming this way, Ned," said Jack excitedly, and gathering a half-dozen or so smaller stones in his right hand, he hurled them catapult fashion right at the advancing heads, with the result that the two reptiles turned sharply, and went off at full speed in beneath the abundant growth of plants, while at the end of a few minutes the missiles thrown in their track produced no effect.
"That's done, sir," said Ned coolly, "and our to-morrow's dinner's safe, and it'll be very hard if I don't dodge something better to go with it.
Hist! hear that!"
The call had been uttered evidently much nearer, and Jack grasped his spear.
"That's right, sir," whispered Ned, "but this is a big place, and it ain't likely that they'll come right over us. Let's lie still and listen. We can't see them, and they can't see us."
At that moment Jack pinched the speaker's arm, and pointed over him.
"Something to see that way? All right, sir."
He softly wrenched himself round, and gazed in the indicated direction, to see a black figure standing in bold relief against the orange slope of the mountain. He was nearby a hundred feet higher than where they lay, having mounted upon a ridge which was probably one of the hardened lava-streams which had flowed down, and as they watched him, one by one seven more joined him.
He stood looking round for a few moments, and then uttered the cry they had heard before, and turned to descend, making straight for the bend of the ravine which seemed to lead to the shore.
The call was responded to, and a few minutes after another party came into sight away to the left, making apparently for the same place, and if they kept on, it was evident that they would pass about a hundred yards from Jack and his companion, so that their policy was to lie quite still.
"Be too dark to see us in ten minutes, sir," whispered Ned.
"Yes; and then we can't do better than make our way up that ridge till we come upon another valley running down to the shore."
"That's the way, sir," said Ned. "Only wants a little thinking about.
A set o' naked niggers beat you at scheming? Why, it ain't likely."
But they had a scare a quarter of an hour later, the second party of blacks coming into sight suddenly, not twenty yards away, tramping in Indian file, with their spears over their shoulders, and for the moment Jack's heart seemed to stand still, and he grasped his weapon, ready to make one blow for his life.
For it seemed impossible that the men could pass by--men of such a keen, observant nature--without seeing the pair lying there amongst the trailing growth of the potatoes.
Worse still, they came nearer, so as to avoid a block of stone in their way, and one of the number leaped upon it, and after a look round, uttered the call of his tribe, just as one of a flock of running birds does to keep the rest together.
"Now for it," thought Jack, as the black looked straight in his direction, and he prepared to spring up as the man leaped down, and seemed about to run at him, spear in hand.
But just when an encounter for life or death seemed inevitable, the savage trotted on, and the others followed, seeming to grow shorter, till one by one they disappeared, shoulders, heads, tops of the spears, dissolving into the coming gloom of evening.
"Oh, scissors!" whispered Ned. "I say, Mr Jack, sir, if I'd held my breath much longer, I'm sure all the works would have stopped."
"I thought it was all over, Ned."
"Yes, sir, so did I; but I meant to have a dig at one or two of 'em first. Talk about as near as a toucher, that was nearer. How do you feel now?"
"Heart beats horribly."
"So does mine, sir. It's going like a steam-pump with too much to do.
But who's afraid?"
"I am, Ned."
"That you are not, sir. I'm just the same as you, but it's only excitement, and what any one would feel. Now then they've gone down and blocked our road, so we must go up another way. Just give 'em another five minutes, and then we'll go and get our 'taters."
The ashes were soon being raked aside, and the invaluable potatoes about to be uncovered, when Ned sniffed.
"I say, Mr Jack, sir, they smell good."
"Why, what's that, Ned?" cried Jack, pointing through the gloom at something long and stiff curled up into a knot.
"That, sir? Well, I am stunned. Why, it's one of they snakes, sir, got closer in to get warm, and he overdid it. He's cooked; and just you smell, sir."
"Ugh! throw it away."
"But it smells 'licious, sir. It does really."
"It makes me feel sick, Ned--the idea's horrible. Why it will have spoiled all the potatoes."
"Don't make me feel sick, sir; makes me feel hungry. You've no idea how good it smells."
"What! a horrible reptile?"
"So's a turtle, sir; and you won't say turtle-soup isn't good."
"But a snake, and perhaps poisonous, Ned?"
"We shouldn't eat his head, sir. Don't see why you might not just as well eat a snake as an eel, sir."
"Throw it away!" cried Jack sharply.