“Look-ye here, old mate,” growled Wriggs to his companion, “I’m getting jolly well sick o’ this here job.”

“Why, yer ungrateful beggar, what are you grumbling about now? You had too much o’ them joosety pigeons, and it’s been too strong for you.”

“’Tarn’t that,” growled Wriggs, in a hoarse whisper. “It’s this here ladder.”

“What’s the matter with the ladder, mate? Seemed to me to be a nice light strong ’un when I carried it.”

“Oh, yes, it’s strong enough, messmate, but it makes me feel like a fool, Tommy.”

“Why so, Billy?”

“’Cause I’m having to go cutting about here like a lamp-lighter as has lost his lantern, and ain’t got no lamposties near. Blow the old ladder! I’m sick on it.”

“Give us hold, and you take these ropes,” said Smith, “I never see such a fellow for grumbling as you are, Billy. You’d only got to say as you was tired, and I’d ha’ took it at once.”

Wriggs chewed and spat on the ground, but he made no other movement.

“Well, are yer going to ketch hold o’ these here ropes?”

“No, I aren’t going to ketch hold o’ no ropes. Cause why? It’s my spell with the ladder, and I’m a-going to carry the ladder till it’s time to give it up.”

“Well, you are a horbstnit one, Billy, and no mistake.”

“Look-ye here, are you going to keep your mouth shut? ’Cause if you’re not, I’m a-going to get furder away afore the Injuns begins to shoot. I don’t want no pysoned arrows sticking into me.”

“Course you don’t, mate. Look-ye here, if I was you I’d stand that there ladder straight up, and then go aloft and sit on the top rung. You could rest yourself, and be a deal safer up there.”

“Chaff!” growled Wriggs. “Chaff! Better hold your tongue, Tommy, if yer can’t talk sense. What does young Mr Oliver say Forrard again?”

“Yes.”

“Oh, all right, then, I don’t mind. I’ll go off ’lone with the ladder if he likes. Where’s the Injuns now?”

“Dunno. But they ain’t Injuns, Billy; they’re savygees, that’s what they are.”

“Why, I heered Mr Oliver call ’em pap you hans. But there, I don’t care. Call ’em what you like, so long as I can get rid o’ this ladder and rest my soldier.”

“Then why don’t you put it over your other soldier, Billy, or else let me carry it?”

“’Cause I shan’t, Tommy, so there you have it, sharp.”

“You men will be heard by the Papuans if there are any lurking about,” whispered Oliver just then. “Silence, and keep close behind us.”

As the moon rose higher it was not to shine out bright and clear, for there was a thin haze floating over the sea, and consequently, as the softened silvery light flooded the wave-swept plain, every object looked distorted and mysterious. Tree-trunks, where they lay together, seemed huge masses of coral rock, swollen and strange, and the hollows scooped out by the earthquake wave appeared to be full of a luminous haze that the eye could not penetrate, and suggested the possibility of enemies being in hiding, waiting to take aim with some deadly weapon, as soon as the light grew plain enough for the returning party to be seen.

But out in the open, as far as they could make out, no lurking savages were visible, and as the light spread more and more, unless hidden by some shadowy hollow, there was no danger close at hand.

This was satisfactory and encouraging, the more so that though they all listened with every nerve on the strain, there was now not a sound to betray the enemy’s whereabouts.

On the other hand, in spite of the light growing stronger, there was no sign of the brig, and, worse still, everything looked so distorted and hazy, not one familiar object to enable them to judge of their position.

“It’s just like looking through a big magnifying glass,” whispered Oliver, “at the point when everything is upside down and distorted from being out of focus.”

“Perhaps so,” said Drew, “but we’re not looking through a magnifying glass.”

“I wonder that you, a man who is always using a microscope, should talk like that,” replied Oliver. “We are not looking through a glass, certainly, but we are piercing a dull transparent medium, caused by water in the form of mist floating in the air. I don’t want to be conceited, but my idea was quite right.”

“Quite,” said Panton, “only this is not a good time for studying optics. What we want is knowledge that shall bring us to the brig without being shot at by our friends.”

“Hear that, Tommy,” whispered Wriggs. “We’re going to be shot at now in front by Muster Rimmer and the others, while the savages shoots at us behind.”

“Well, if we can’t help it, Billy, what’s the use o’ grumbling?” returned his mate.

“’Cause I’ve got this here ladder. What’s the good of a ladder when you’re being shot at?”

“None as I sees, Billy.”

“’Course not. Now, if it had been a good stout plank, there’d be some sense in it.”

“What, you’d shove it behind yer when the niggers was shooting harrers?” said Smith, thoughtfully.

“O’ course.”

“And afore yer when Muster Rimmer was lettin’ go with his revolver or a gun.”

“Right you are, mate. That’s it.”

“Might keep off a harrer,” said Smith, thoughtfully, “but bullets would go through it like they would through a bar o’ soap.”

“Yah, that’s where you allers haggravates me, Tommy. I knows you’re cleverer than I am, but sometimes you do talk so soft.”

“What d’yer mean?”

“I mean what’s the good o’ you hargying whether a bullet would go through a thick plank or whether it wouldn’t, when it’s on’y a split pole and so many wooden spells. Don’t you see it ain’t a board but on’y a ladder; and I’m sick on it, that I am.”

“Then let me carry it.”

“Sharn’t!”

“Will you two men be quiet?” said Oliver in a sharp whisper. “Do you want to betray our whereabouts to the enemy?”

“It aren’t me, sir, it’s Tommy Smith keeps a-haggrywating like.”

“I aren’t, sir! it’s Billy Wriggs a-going on about that ladder as he’s got to carry.”

“Well, it is a nuisance to be carrying a thing like that about all night. Lay it down, man. I daresay we can find it again in the morning. Now follow us on quietly.”

Oliver joined his companions, and the two sailors were left a little way behind.

“Now, then! d’yer hear?” whispered Smith. “He telled yer to chuck that there ladder down.”

“I don’t care what he telled me, Tommy. He aren’t my orficer. I was to carry that there ladder, and I’m a-goin’ to carry that there ladder till my watch is up.”

“Yah! yer orbsnit wooden-headed old chock.”

“Dessay I am, Tommy, but dooty’s dooty, and ship’s stores is ship’s stores. I’ve got to do my dooty, and I aren’t going to chuck away the ship’s stores. That sort o’ thing may do for natralists, but it don’t come nat’ral to a sailor.”

“You won’t be better till you’ve had a snooze, Billy. Your temper’s downright nasty, my lad. I say, what’s that?”

“Which? What? Wheer?”

“Yonder, something fuzzy-like coming along yonder.”

“Niggers,” whispered back Wriggs. “You can see their heads with the hair standing out like a mop. But say, Tommy, what’s that up yonder again the sky?”

“Nothin’ as I knows on.”

“Not there, stoopid: yonder. If that there ain’t the wane on the top of our mast sticking up out of a hindful o’ fog, I’m a Dutchman.”

“Talking again?” said Oliver, angrily.

“Yes, sir, look!” whispered Smith. “Yonder’s the brig.”

“Can’t be that way, my man.”

“But it is, sir, just under that bit o’ fog. See the little weather-cock thing on the mast?”

“Of course! Bravo! Found.”

“Yes, sir, and something else, too,” growled Wriggs. “Look yonder behind yer. Niggers a whole ship’s crew on ’em and they’re coming arter us there under the moon.”

“Yes,” said Oliver sharply. “Now, then, for the brig. Sharp’s the word.”

“Where is it?” asked Panton excitedly, as he too caught sight of the undefined hazy figures of the Papuans beneath the moon.

“There in that patch of fog: the top mast shows above it. Altogether: run.”

They set off at full speed, nerved by a yell from the savages, when, all at once, the thin mist which had hidden the ship was cut in half a dozen places by flashes of light. The dull reports of as many rifles smote their ears, and as Oliver uttered a sharp cry, Wriggs went down with a rush, carrying with him the ladder, which fell crosswise and tripped up Panton and Smith, who both came with a crash to the ground.