Ned rose, and Jack followed suit, to begin stepping cautiously on, till by slow degrees they reached the sharp angle in the passage, and could look straight out to the entrance and see that all was clear, while there before them was the bright sunny sky, and away in the distance the gleaming sea. "I say, who's afraid?" cried Ned excitedly. "But, Mr Jack, sir, what a rum thing darkness is! I felt twice as much scared over that as I did about the niggers, and--Oh, I say, look at that!" Before the lad could grasp what he was about to do, Ned ran forward toward the light till he was half-way to the mouth of the cavern, when Jack saw the dark silhouette-like figure stoop down again and again, to pick up something each time, and he returned laughing, bearing quite a bundle of spears, bows, and arrows. "There, I was right," cried Jack; "they were frightened--so scared that they dropped their weapons and ran." "Yes, sir, and set us up with some tools. Oh, if it had only been our guns!" CHAPTER THIRTY TWO. THE EVIL OF NOT BEING USED TO IT. But the blacks had not left the guns, and utterly unused as these two were to the use of such savage weapons, they felt a thrill of satisfaction run through them as they grasped the means of making one stroke in defence of their lives. "It's a many years since I used to go into the copses to cut myself a good hazel and make myself a bow, Mr Jack, and get reeds out of the edge of the long lake, to tie nails in the ends and use for arrows. I used to bind the nails in with whitey-brown thread well beeswaxed, and then dress the notch at the other end to keep the bowstring from splitting it up. I've hit rabbits with an arrow before now, though they always run into their holes. You can shoot with a bow and arrow at a target of course?" "I? No, Ned," said the boy sadly. "I can't do anything but read." "Oh, I say, sir! Why, I've seen you knock over things with a gun. Look how you finished that sea snake." "I suppose I'd better try though, Ned." "Why of course, sir. You take the one you like. Here's three of them. Wish they hadn't been so stingy with the arrows--only five between two of us. Never mind. Hadn't got any ten minutes ago. We'll keep a pair apiece and have one to spare, and a spear each. We'll leave the others in here, and let 'em fetch 'em if they dare." "Yes," said Jack, selecting his weapons; "but we must not go out yet." "Well, sir, I don't want to interfere, but I haven't had anything to eat since lunch yesterday, and if I don't soon do some stoking my engine won't go." "But you don't expect that you are going to kill anything with these things?" cried Jack. "I'm going to try, sir. Savages can, and have a feast of roast pig after, so we ought to be able to. Don't you think we might risk starting, and get higher up the mountain, and then round somehow, and make for the shore?" "It will be very risky by daylight." "But we can't go in the dark, sir."