I never was in such a hole as this!"

Bludger's words made me shudder. I had never forgotten the hideous
sacrifice, doubtless the Thargeelyah, as they called it, that greeted me
when I was first cast ashore on the island. To think that I had only
been saved that I might figure as a victim of some of their heathen gods!

Oh, now the thought came back to me with a bitter repentance, that if I
had only converted all the islanders, they would never have dreamed of
sacrificing me in honour of a mere idol! Why had I been so lukewarm, why
had I backslidden, why had I endeavoured to make myself agreeable by
joining in promiscuous dances, when I should have been thundering against
Pagan idolatry, holy water, idols, sacrifices and the whole abominable
system of life on the island? True, I might have goaded them into
slaying me; I might have suffered as a martyr; but, at the least, I would
have deserved the martyr's crown. And now I was to perish at the stake,
without even the precious consolation of being a real martyr, and was to
be flogged into the bargain.

I gave a hollow groan as these reflections passed through my mind, and
this appeared to afford William Bludger some consolation.

"You don't seem to like it yourself, Capt'n; what's your advice? We're
both in the same boat; leastways I wish we _were_ in a boat; anyhow we're
both in the same hole."

There was no denying this, and it was high time to mature some plan of
escape. Already I must have been missed by my attendants, my gaolers
rather, who would have returned from their festival, and would be looking
for me everywhere.