? ? ? ? "There! I told you so! they are coming for us!" exclaimed my companion the next moment, as the forms of four of the islanders were seen in bold relief against the illuminated background, mounting the pi-pi, and approaching towards us.
? ? ? ? They came on noiselessly, nay, stealthily, and glided along through the gloom that surrounded us, as if about to spring upon some object they were fearful of disturbing before they should make sure of it. Gracious Heaven! the horrible reflections which crowded upon me that moment! A cold sweat stood upon my brow, and spell-bound with terror, I awaited my fate.
? ? ? ? Suddenly the silence was broken by the well-remembered tones of Mehevi, and at the kindly accents of his voice, my fears were immediately dissipated. "Tommo, Toby, ki ki!" (eat). He had waited to address us, until he had assured himself that we were both awake, at which he seemed somewhat surprised.
? ? ? ? "Ki ki! is it?" said Toby, in his gruff tones; "well, cook us first, will you- but what's this?" he added, as another savage appeared, bearing before him a large trencher of wood, containing some kind of steaming meat, as appeared from the odours it diffused, and which he deposited at the feet of Mehevi. "A baked baby, I dare say! but I will have none of it, never mind what it is. A pretty fool I should make of myself, indeed, waked up here in the middle of the night, stuffing and guzzling, and all to make a fat meal for a parcel of bloody-minded cannibals one of these mornings! No; I see what they are at very plainly, so I am resolved to starve myself into a bunch of bones and gristle, and then, if they serve me up, they are welcome! But, I say, Tommo, you are not going to eat any of that mess there, in the dark, are you? Why, how can you tell what it is?"
? ? ? ? "By tasting it, to be sure," said I, masticating a morsel that Kory-Kory had just put in my mouth; "and excellently good it is, too, very much like veal.
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