noon
Their faith in their white visitors was very great and , after a few minutes ' talk among themselves , they intimated to the boys that they would obey their orders . Will at once signed to a few men to stand as guards round the village , to warn them of the approaching enemy ; and then set the whole of the rest of the population to work cutting sharp-pointed poles , boughs , and thorny bushes . With these a circle was made around the trees upon which the village was built . Fortunately the hostile Malays had halted in the forest , two or three miles away , intending to make their attack by night and , as the news of their coming had arrived at noon , the villagers had , before they ceased work late in the evening , erected a formidable hedge round the village . Some of the women had been set to work manufacturing a number of torches , similar to those used by them for lighting their dwellings , but much larger . They were formed of the stringy bark of a tree , dipped in the resinous juice obtained from another . Will had one of these fastened to each of the trees nearest to the hedge .