'Fire!' exclaimed I, while my heart took to beating like a trip-
hammer, 'what fire?'

'Why, the fire to cook us, to be sure, what else would the
cannibals be kicking up such a row about if it were not for
that?'

'Oh, Toby! have done with your jokes; this is no time for them;
something is about to happen, I feel confident.'

'Jokes, indeed?' exclaimed Toby indignantly. 'Did you ever hear
me joke? Why, for what do you suppose the devils have been
feeding us up in this kind of style during the last three days,
unless it were for something that you are too much frightened at
to talk about? Look at that Kory-Kory there!--has he not been
stuffing you with his confounded mushes, just in the way they
treat swine before they kill them? Depend upon it, we will be
eaten this blessed night, and there is the fire we shall be
roasted by.'

This view of the matter was not at all calculated to allay my
apprehensions, and I shuddered when I reflected that we were
indeed at the mercy of a tribe of cannibals, and that the
dreadful contingency to which Toby had alluded was by no means
removed beyond the bounds of possibility.

'There! I told you so! they are coming for us!' exclaimed my
companion the next moment, as the forms of four of the islanders
were seen in bold relief against the illuminated back-ground
mounting the pi-pi and approaching towards us.