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While this work was going on, it was resolved to hold some communication with the natives. A boat was lowered, under charge of Mr Brand Gerard and I and Mr McRitchie going in her, and two hands, as no more could be spared from attending to the repairs of the ship. We were all armed, but the captain directed us to be very careful in our intercourse with the wild people we might meet.
How to convince him of this seemed a difficulty. Gerard undertook to assure him. "Mr McRitchie," said he one day abruptly to him, "I daresay that you think me a young jackanapes, whose only thought is how he can do most harm in the world.
He invited Gerard and me, with Mr McRitchie, to accompany him not the last excursion of the sort we were destined to make. As he undertook to be back before the ship could be ready for sea, the captain, glad that we should see as much of the country as possible, allowed us to go.
"That is the cry of some one in mortal fear or agony," he remarked. "There is another!" It was a sharp, loud cry, or rather shriek. "The calmness of the sea and the peculiar state of the atmosphere would enable a sound to travel from a long distance," observed McRitchie. "It may come from a spot a mile, or even two miles off."
Well, it's a great comfort to feel that of a man who you believe has just been taken out of the world," observed the master. "I hope your man, Yool, was a trusting believer. I know our man was, poor fellow." Mr McRitchie had been listening, and seemed much affected at what had been said.
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