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Old Dellow will be a bit mad at missing it, eh, Lynton?" "But he shan't miss it," said Briscoe. "We must light it up again. Say, Brace, I can't see any sign of holes. The floor's covered with rubbish and stony dust, but it seems to me that we can walk right back among those two rows of images to the altar. I want to see what those things are round about it."
"Is it now?" said the second mate sarcastically. "I'm much obliged and thankye for telling me. You put the bullet in at that end of the gun too, don't you, and push it through with the ramrod like a popgun, eh?" "Yes, that's right," said Dellow, chuckling; "but hit the poor fellows soft the first time so as not to hurt 'em much. If they get saucy afterwards, why then you must hit hard."
How came you to forget?" "Well, really, sir " began the first mate warmly. "Tut, tut, tut! bless my heart!" cried the captain. "Really, Dellow, I beg your pardon. It quite slipped my memory." "Indeed, sir," said the first officer stiffly. "It did not slip mine." "No. How absurd. I forgot all about Lynton. Send a boat ashore at once to fetch him off to the brig. He must be waiting."
"Right, Dellow," said the captain, nodding his head with satisfaction. "Look here, squire, you try and make your mind a bit easy." "I am going to," replied Brace. "Well, then, let Sir Humphrey have a good sleep while you go on deck with Dellow here, and take your rifle with you too. You're a good shot, and ought to be able to bring some of those foreign archers to their senses."
"Well, how many have you brought down?" Then, without waiting for an answer, he continued: "I don't suppose there are above half a dozen of them. Just a hunting party in a canoe. Look here, Dellow, we shall have to try to scare them away before they do any more mischief." "Well, we are scaring them," said the mate gruffly. "I believe we've brought down two."
We shall have to take a boat-load back for the British Museum." "Bah!" said Dellow. "Are you coming back now? Dan's got a splendid dinner of fish and bird roasted and I don't know how you are; we're starving here." "We shall be with you in no time now," said the captain. "Forward, my lads, and let's get back."
"I don't care, sir; I'll do it. You've got the wrong man to deal with if you think you're going to play any of your Yankee tricks with David Banes. Here, Dellow, heave-to and man the big boat." "Good ten miles to the shore," said the first mate in a low remonstrant tone of voice. "I don't care if it's twenty. I said I wouldn't take him as a passenger, and I won't."
"It's as the circus clown said, too dangerous to be safe." "Yes," said Dellow, who was crawling towards the starboard bulwark on hands and knees, dragging two rifles after him. "Come and lay hold of one, Jem. Mind you don't shoot yourself. It's the wooden end of the rifle that you have to put up against your shoulder, and the hole in the iron barrel which you are supposed to point at the enemy."
"Well, you gentlemen," he said, "I'm going to stop on deck till we're a few miles farther off the shore; so I shall keep Mr Dellow company till it's Lynton's watch, and then I shall turn in. Good night, gentlemen, good night." "Good night," said the brothers in a breath. "If you hear it come on to blow before morning, you needn't be surprised, for I think we're going to have a bit of wind.
"Yes," said Brace, who was now gradually beginning to take an excited interest in the encounter with the natives; "it's the way they shoot the floating turtles, so that their arrows pierce the shell instead of glancing off." "There's another," said Dellow. "Well, I wish they'd keep to their turtles. I don't like them practising on me. What's that one like, Mr Brace? Is the point broken?"
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