We Arranged To Have Our Meals With Owen At The Store, And We Slept In A
Rough Palm-Thatched Shed With A Raised Flooring Of Split Palm-Trunks,
Which Was Very Hard And Rough To Sleep On, And Gave Me A Sleepless
Night.
We got two of our police to sleep in front of the doorway,
as it was more than likely that the natives might attempt to murder
us.
These precautions may have been justified as, in the middle of the
night both Acland and I myself saw two natives peering into the hut.
The next day we sent off a messenger to the northern station for more
police, and it was fully a week before they arrived. Meanwhile we spent
our time dynamiting and catching fish. We caught some large ground
sharks fully four hundred pounds in weight, and also a "gorupa"
("groper"), a very large fish of about three hundred and fifty
pounds. This fish is the terror of divers in these parts they fear
it more than any shark. Both shark and fish proved most acceptable
to our police; they are especially fond of shark.
One morning about five o'clock I was aroused by hearing a shrill
war-cry close by. The police rushed up with their rifles and told us
we were attacked. It can be imagined it did not take us long to buckle
on our revolvers and seize our rifles and run, half-asleep as we were,
in the direction of the noise, which was repeated from time to time
in a very ferocious manner.
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