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You will remain here while Billy and I go up to the house and bring you down some breakfast; after which I must see what can be done to make you reasonably presentable." "All right. Mister," answered Svorenssen, "we'll keep clear of the 'ouse, never fear.
Then he wanted to know how we are going to get the cutter into the water when she is ready for launching; and then let me see oh, yes, we got on about the natives again and the apes. He said it was all very well for us who could bolt ourselves securely in the house at night; but what about him and Svorenssen if an ape should come across and surprise them in their tent some night?
For a heated five minutes I believed I was in for very serious trouble with the two men; but in the midst of the argument which was chiefly between Van Ryn and myself Svorenssen intervened, drawing his companion away and saying a few hasty words that seemed to have the effect of wonderfully calming the Dutchman's excitement; and the dispute ended by their admitting rather lamely I thought that since I was evidently master of the situation, they supposed they must make the best of it and accept what I chose to give them.
"Svorenssen sung out, of course," replied the boatswain, "but he couldn't leave the wheel, for 'twas pipin' up a freshish breeze on our port quarter, and we was doin' about seven, or seven and a half knots, with topmast and lower stunsails set to port, and of course we had to take 'em in, clew up the royal and to'ga'ntsail, and haul down the gaff- tops'l before we could round to; and that took us so long that at last, when we'd brought the hooker to the wind, hove her to, and had got the jolly-boat over the side, we knowed that it'd be no earthly use to look for either of 'em.
He said that if he was boss he'd shoot the beast right away; and he grumbled a bit because you wouldn't give him and Svorenssen any firearms to defend themselves with, not only from the leopard but also from the natives, whom, he said, he didn't trust a little bit, and who might come across any night and massacre us all in our sleep.
Reasoning thus, I next asked myself the question: Should anything happen to me should I, for instance, die, either aboard the cutter or before leaving the islands how would my death affect the fortunes of those two men, Svorenssen and Van Ryn, to say nothing of that of Billy? And why should it be desired to get rid of me? Those were not difficult questions to answer.
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