<^ Fire I" 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 I. 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 I —
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 wd
shall be roasted by."

This view of the matter was not at all calculated to alky my
apprehensions, and I shuddered when I reflected that we were
indeed at the mercy of a tribe of cannibals, and that the dreadful



104 BESIDENCE IN THE MARQUESAS. [chap. hi.
contingency to which Toby had alluded was by no means removed
beyond the bounds of possibility.
^' There 1 I told you so I they are coming for us I" 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.
