I had hardly made this resolution when I caught the sound of voices, and on mounting the ridge, I could see through the bushes a party of six men on the opposite bank. I thought I could recognise two of them as my friends of the previous day, and these were pointing at the island and talking in loud, excited tones. Then the whole party began to wade slowly across the shallows, each man manifestly endeavouring to be the last of the procession. As I saw that they must land under a high bank, I crept along the ground to receive them on my domain, and when the leader was within a dozen yards of the island, I slowly reared my head above the bank and fixed him with a stony stare. He did not see me at first, having turned to speak to his comrades; but when he suddenly met my eye, he stopped dead, and stood with mouth agape as though turned into stone. In a few seconds he recovered himself, and turning about, splashed wildly across the river, screeching like a terrified child, and followed closely by his five companions. When they reached the further bank they paused to look back, and I took the opportunity to let myself be seen for a moment as though flitting from one hiding-place to another. A single glance was enough for them, for the instant I appeared they made off at a run. My visitors, then, were disposed of, at any rate, for some time to come, and, as I returned to my work, I congratulated myself on the brilliant success of my ruse. But yet the old sense of security was destroyed, and I pushed on my labours with anxious impatience. For although it was pretty certain that these men would not again venture near the island, and that all the villagers would give a wide berth to a place haunted by so dreadful a presence, yet the story of the apparition would inevitably become the talk and wonder of the district, and others besides the villagers would hear it. There were the fetish-men in their settlement not two miles away. They might resent the intrusion of an unofficial demon into their jurisdiction, and their expert acquaintance with performances “in character” would probably make them highly suspicious and sceptical, while if the reports represented the island _abonsam_ as having a white skin, they would be likely to connect him with the run-away slave who had cost them so dear. This last consideration was especially disquieting, and it kept me in a continual state of apprehension and watchfulness.