was not much for them to do.

But one of them ran off to the woods, and they could not hear of
him more. They had good cause to think that he found his way
home, as in three or four weeks some wild men came to the isle,
and when they had had their feast and dance, they went off in two
days' time. So my friends might well fear that if this slave got
safe home, he would be sure to tell the wild men that they were
in the isle, and in what part of it they might be found. And so
it came to pass, for in less than two months, six boats of wild
men, with eight or ten men in each boat, came to the north side
of the isle, where they had not been known to come up to that
time.

The foe had brought their boats to land, not more than a mile
from the tent of the two good men, and it was there that the
slave who had run off had been kept. These men had the good luck
to see the boats when they were a long way off, so that it took
them quite an hour from that time to reach the shore.

My friends now had to think how that hour was to be spent. The
first thing they did was to bind the two slaves that were left,
and to take their wives, and as much of their stores as they
could, to some dark place in the woods. They then sent a third
slave to the chief and his men, to tell them the news, and to ask
for help.

They had not gone far in the woods, when they saw, to their great
grief and rage, that their huts were in flames, and that the wild
men ran to and fro, like beasts in search of prey. But still our