Young Thring, brave, cool, and collected amidst all the turmoil of this hand-to-hand fight, was one of the first to enter the village, and, with the aid of a body of veteran seamen, drove the line of defenders--still fighting desperately--backwards into the narrow lanes that divided the rows of beehive huts one from the other. The middy had asked the interpreter to keep close to him, that he might be enabled to question some of the prisoners as to the whereabouts of Jack Villiers, whom he hoped to rescue alive out of the hands of his ruthless captors--if, indeed, the poor fellow had not already perished by the hands of an assassin. As the middy and his men pushed on, the resistance of the villagers grew feebler and feebler, and at length ceased altogether. In answer to the queries of the interpreter, one of the prisoners asserted that he knew well the hut in which Jack Villiers had been confined, and would guide the victors to it. With a terrible anxiety gnawing at his heart, Thring marched on rapidly with his men, and quickly arrived before the hut which had been used as a prison. It was deserted and empty, and there were unmistakeable bloodstains upon the earthen floor. CHAPTER VI. When our mid of the maintop was hurried ashore from the dhow in the Joo-joo river, he had no idea that a man-of-war was in the offing, and that one of her boats was about to board the slaver. The sounds of the conflict were heard somewhat indistinctly in the cave in which the three Arabs and the middy had taken refuge, but Jack felt with a sudden exaltation of spirits that it was probable that a British boat had arrived upon the scene, and that his immediate release might be reasonably expected. Sadly were his hopes dashed to the ground when, with his arms bound behind him, he was hurried out of the cave and up the cliffs by his guards. One glance at the dhow beneath him showed our hero that there were British bluejackets on board, although in the confusion of the moment he did not recognise Thring or any of the cutter's crew. One wild cry burst from the unhappy boy's lips. The next moment he was struck to the ground by his relentless captors, gagged with a piece of cotton cloth, and then forcibly borne away up-country in a state of semi-consciousness, from which he did not fully recover till he found himself cast--released from his gag, but bound and helpless--into a small beehive hut in Sooltan Shah's stockaded village. A whirl of conflicting thoughts passed through the poor boy's mind, and for the first time since his rescue from the waves did it occur to him that his captors might take it into their heads to end his existence and their own responsibility at the same time. [Illustration: _Some armed natives entered the hut._]