Here and there, where the trees grew less close together, he felt a slight breeze blowing in his face, and at length he detected a faint smell of wood smoke.  He halted, and told the rest, in a whisper, that they were approaching a settlement.  From this point they advanced still more slowly and cautiously.  Then, with a suddenness that took them aback, they came to the edge of a clearing.  At first Tom was not sure whether it was the same that he had seen before.  He had indeed approached it from a different direction.  But a glance around satisfied him on this point, and the party stood within the shelter of the trees while Underhill gave his orders.  They were to fire one shot, then rush forward with loud shouts, seize what food they could lay hands on, and flee back in all haste.  There was no time to be lost, for the sky already gave hint of dawn.

Underhill had scarcely finished speaking when there was a cry from a point near at hand.  They had approached the camp from the wind-yard side; the breeze had carried either some murmur of Underhill’s voice, low as he had spoken, or some faint scent which the natives, as keen in their perceptions as wild animals, had detected.  Instantly the camp was in commotion:  the dusky warriors poured forth from their little huts, and swept, a wild, yelling horde, upon the weary company.

CHAPTER X

SOME PRAUS AND A JUNK

Smith’s destination, on leaving Penang, was Port Darwin in the Northern Territory of Australia.  He had never been at that port, and knew that a few years before it had been little more than a collection of grass humpys, inhabited by Chinese and Malays, with an iron shed for a Custom House, and a vast expanse of forest and jungle behind.  But it was the principal port in the northern part of Australia, and he had no doubt that at Palmerston, the thriving town on the eastern shore, he would be able to obtain the necessary supply of petrol and oil.

His map informed him that his course lay across the Malay Peninsula, Dutch Borneo, and the islands of Celebes and Timor.  It was necessary to rise to a considerable height to cross the hills that run like a spine on the Malay Peninsula, and having passed those, he came in little over an hour to the eastern coast, about a hundred and fifty miles north of Singapore.  In another hour and a half he reached the coast of Borneo, whence for nearly three hours he saw beneath him an almost unbroken sea of foliage, only one range of hills breaking the monotony.  Somewhat after midday he came to the straits of Macassar, at the south-east extremity of Borneo.  As he crossed these, he had an unpleasant shock.  The engine missed sparking once or twice when he was half-way across the Straits, and he shouted to Rodier to loose the life buoys in case it failed.  There were several small craft beneath him, so that he had no doubt of being picked up if the aeroplane fell, unless,