They advanced cautiously enough, as though dreading a surprise.  The chief carried a bright parang in his left hand; the others were armed with guns, their swords being thrust through belts.  Creeping forward on tip-toe, though their distant companions were making a tremendous row, they looked a murderous gang as they peered across the open space, now brilliantly illuminated by the moon.

Jenks had a sudden intuition that the right thing to do now was to shoot the whole party.  He dismissed the thought at once.  All his preparations were governed by the hope that the pirates might abandon their quest after hours of fruitless search.  It would be most unwise, he told himself, to precipitate hostilities.  Far better avoid a conflict altogether, if that were possible, than risk the immediate discovery of his inaccessible retreat.

In other words he made a grave mistake, which shows how a man may err when over-agonized by the danger of the woman he loves.  The bold course was the right one.  By killing the Dyak leader he would have deprived the enemy of the dominating influence in this campaign of revenge.  When the main body, already much perturbed by the unseen and intangible agencies which opened fire at them in the wood, arrived in Prospect Park to find only the dead bodies of their chief and his small force, their consternation could be turned into mad panic by a vigorous bombardment from the rock.

Probably, in less than an hour after their landing, the whole tribe would have rushed pell-mell to the boats, cursing the folly which led them to this devil-haunted island.  But it serves no good purpose to say what might have been.  As it was the Dyaks, silent now and moving with the utmost caution, passed the well, and were about to approach the cave when one of them saw the house.

Instantly they changed their tactics.  Retreating hastily to the shade of the opposite cliff they seemed to await the coming of reinforcements.  The sailor fancied that a messenger was dispatched by way of the north sands to hurry up the laggards, because the distant firing slackened, and, five minutes later, a fierce outbreak of yells among the trees to the right heralded a combined rush on the Belle Vue Castle.

The noise made by the savages was so great—­the screams of bewildered birds circling overhead so incessant—­that Jenks was compelled to speak quite loudly when he said to Iris—­

“They must think we sleep soundly not to be disturbed by the volleys they have fired already.”

She would have answered, but he placed a restraining hand on her shoulder, for the Dyaks quickly discovering that the hut was empty, ran towards the cave and thus came in full view.