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"I'll keep my admiration till we are well out at sea." "And that will be at breakfast-time to-morrow morning, gentlemen. I should not mind turning in for good myself. As it is, I'm just going down to snatch a couple of hours before Dellow comes and rouses me up."
Well, it's been a bad time for them: they've lost their boat and two of their crew." "And serve 'em right," said Dellow, who had overheard the conversation. "They should have left us alone. It isn't their fault that Sir Humphrey isn't lying below there dead and cold instead of getting better fast." "Ah! you have seen him, then?" cried Brace anxiously.
"Boat was sent, sir, and the men say they brought him aboard. That's right, isn't it, Dellow?" and the captain turned round to his first officer. "Quite," said the first mate, who looked very much disturbed, and kept on wiping his dewy forehead with the back of his hand. "Tell 'em," said the captain. "Speak out."
A hearty cheer rose now from Dellow and his men, which was echoed from the first boat, as the distance between the party and their fierce enemies rapidly increased. "You did that splendidly, captain!" cried Brace excitedly. "Tidy, sir, tidy," was the reply; "but these boats weren't built for steeplechasing in South American rivers. Let's see what damage is done. I don't suppose we're much hurt."
I'll tell Dellow to send a boat ashore for you at ten." The skipper walked off leaving the mate looking after him and frowning. "He needn't have been so nasty about it. But he wouldn't sail without me if I were not back." The mate did not stir till he had seen Captain Banes on board.
Well, there's nothing to mind to-night, gentlemen, so we may as well have our sleep out." "Sleep?" said Brace. "What! with the men in a state of mutiny?" "Pah!" ejaculated the captain. "Hallo! who's here?" "Me Dellow," said the first mate, in a hoarse whisper. "Lynton's here too. Is anything wrong?" "Yes," said the captain, and the two mates were made acquainted with the trouble.
"No; I have been quite prepared for days," replied Sir Humphrey. "What about you, Brace?" "Oh, I'm ready," was the reply: "as ready as Captain Banes." "But I'm not, my lad," said the captain. "I can't sail without my second officer. By the way, Dellow, did you give orders for the boat to go ashore for Lynton at ten o'clock town time?"
In their utter astonishment and dread the Indians had to a man sprung out of the canoe, overturning it in the act, and were swimming and diving their best to reach the shelter of the hanging boughs, while their frail vessel was floating bottom upward rapidly down the stream. "Good aim, Dellow," cried the captain. "Well fired, squire."
"Oh, yes, I understand," said the mate, smiling in a peculiar way; and he went to the arms rack and took down two rifles and ammunition-belts for the second mate and himself. "Hold hard a minute," said the captain. "Just understand this, Dellow: if they leave you alone you leave them alone. If they don't they must take the consequences." "I understand," said the mate coolly.
We shall have to take great care, or we shall be drawn right in among the trees." "Ah, that would be awkward," said Briscoe drily, "to find the water suddenly go down and leave the boats up in the tree-tops like a couple of big birds' nests." "Ahoy! Look out, Dellow!" yelled the captain. "Stand by, my lads, to shove her off, or she'll break us away. Hah! I thought so."