“You see,” he said, “Carthew must have been uneasy in his mind all along.  I have no doubt that directly he put into the bay, and decided to make this his headquarters, he set about preparing some place where he could carry them off to, and where there would be very little chance of their being traced.  Down at the village by the water he heard of this Obi man.  He has evidently great power in this part of the island.  These fellows are all great rascals, and Carthew may have either gone or sent to him, and made arrangements that he and a party should if necessary be allowed to establish a camp in the valley where this fellow lives; of course, promising him a handsome present.  He could have chosen no safer place.  Following hard as we have done on his track, we have obtained a clue; but it is not probable that any of the natives whom Dominique has questioned has the smallest idea that the party were going towards this fetish man’s place.  In fact, the only man that could know it was the negro at that last hut, and you may be sure that were he questioned by any searching party he would not dare to give any information that might excite the anger of this man.

“It is likely enough that this fellow has a gang of men with him, bound to him partly by interest and partly by superstitious fears.  We shall probably have to reckon with these fellows in addition to Carthew’s own force.  He seems to have taken ten or twelve of the blacks from the village with him.  They would have no fear of going when he told them that he was under the special protection of the fetish man.  Then, you see, he has four of his own sailors, his friend and himself; so that we have an equal number of white men and five negroes against his ten or twelve and the fetishman’s gang.

“However, I hope that we shall have the advantage of a surprise.  If so, I think that we may feel pretty confident that we shall, at any rate, in the first place, carry off Miss Greendale and her maid.  The danger won’t be in the attack, but in the retreat.  That Obi fellow may raise the whole country against us.  There is one thing—­the population is scanty up here, and it won’t be until we get down towards the lower ground that they will be able to muster strongly enough to be really formidable; but we may have to fight hard to get down to the boats.  You see, it is a twenty miles’ march.  We shan’t be able to go very fast, for, although Miss Greendale and her maid might keep up well for some distance, they would be worn out long before we got to the shore, while the black fellows would be able to travel by other paths, and to arouse the villagers as they went, and make it very hot indeed for us.”

“There is one thing—­we shall have the advantage of darkness, Major, and in the woods it would be difficult for them to know how fast we were going.  We might strike off into other paths, and, if necessary, carry Miss Greendale and her maid.  We could make a couple of litters for them, and, with four to a litter, could travel along at a good rate of speed.”