Smudge seemed struck with the change, and I observed he
was giving orders to two or three of the elder savages, apparently to
direct a greater degree of watchfulness. I confess to some uneasiness
myself, for expectation is an unpleasant guest, in a scene like that,
and more especially when accompanied by uncertainty.
Smudge now seemed to think it time to commence his operations in
earnest. Under the direction of the Dipper a quantity of line was
thrown into the yawl, studding-halyards, and such other rope of
convenient size as could be found in the launch, and the boat was
towed by two or three canoes to the island. Here the fellows made what
seamen call a "guess-warp," of their rope; fastening one end to a
tree, and paying out line, as the yawl was towed back again to the
ship. The Dipper's calculation proved to be sufficiently accurate, the
rope reaching from the vessel to the tree.
As soon as this feat was accomplished, and it was done with sufficient
readiness, though somewhat lubberly, twenty or thirty of the savages
clapped on the warp, until they had tautened it to as great a strain
as it would bear. After this they ceased pulling, and I observed a
search around the galley in quest of the cook's axe, evidently with a
design to cut the cables. I thought this a fact worth communicating to
Marble, and I resolved to do so at the risk of my life.
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