"Could nothing be done for them? Can we launch a boat?" faltered Brace. The captain shook his head slowly, frowning the while. "Impossible, my lad; but we don't know that we're safe here. There may be scores more in hiding under the trees by the bank yonder; so keep down, everyone." The order was obeyed, but no more arrows came on board, while from behind the deckhouse Brace stood with Briscoe watching the upturned canoe growing smaller and smaller in the distance, Brace expecting to see some daring swimmer appear from the shore, trying to get on board. He said something of the kind to Lynton, who joined them just before the canoe disappeared round a curve of the river, but the latter smiled before he made a reply. "You forget what sort of a shore it is," he said. "Those fellows could not get along through that jungle a quarter so fast as the canoe drifted with the stream, if they could get along at all. Well, it's been a bad time for them: they've lost their boat and two of their crew." "And serve 'em right," said Dellow, who had overheard the conversation. "They should have left us alone. It isn't their fault that Sir Humphrey isn't lying below there dead and cold instead of getting better fast." "Ah! you have seen him, then?" cried Brace anxiously. "Been below with the skipper, sir, and there won't be much the matter by this time to-morrow if the savages leave us alone." CHAPTER FOURTEEN. A FALSE ALARM. "It's my opinion," said Captain Banes, "that when the sun goes down a breeze will spring up; and I mean to get as far up as I can before it is too dark to see, for the sooner we're out of this neighbourhood the better." "Do you think there's a village of these people near?" asked Brace. "Oh, no; there may be a few huts with the wives and children close at hand, but so far as I know there are only a few of them here and there up the rivers leading a hunting and fishing life." But the captain's prophecy was not fulfilled. There was a little ripple on the water for a few minutes after sundown, but not enough breeze to fill out a sail, and the darkness came on with the brig swinging easily by the creaking cable, which ground and fretted in the hawse-holes. "Now, squire," said the captain, turning to Brace, "how's it going to be? Shall we be all right here at anchor, or will those chaps who got ashore hunt up all their friends and come off in canoes when it's dark, to kill us and sack the brig?" "I'm not experienced enough to say," replied Brace, smiling. "What do you think?" "I think I don't know, my lad: it's as likely to be one way as the other. What do you say to dividing the crew and passengers into two watches, all well armed and ready for the worst? One watch on deck, the other below, just lying down in our clothes with a rifle for a bedfellow, ready to run up at the first call." "I should say it would be very wise," said Brace, "and I think we had better do it."