noon
Also there was the possibility -- nay , more , the very strong probability -- that while we were busily engaged on shore in the attempt to administer salutary chastisement for the betrayal of our shipmates , a party of natives might board the unprotected schooner , slip her cable , and run her ashore ; and then where should we be , with no means of retreat excepting our boats , which would doubtless also be seized ? If we could only get hold of a native and ascertain from him what had become of the absentees we should know what to do : for if the missing men were merely prisoners we should be fully justified in taking the risk of attempting to rescue them ; but if , on the other hand , they were already dead , the question of punishment might very well be left until a more fitting moment . But now there was not a solitary native to be seen anywhere , which , in my opinion , was a decidedly bad sign . The arrival of noon -- by which hour the skipper fully expected to be back aboard the ship , but was not -- found me still undecided upon the question of landing ; but I had so far made up my mind that I had determined to arm all hands and put the schooner into as efficient a state of defence as possible . Accordingly I gave orders to have the arms and ammunition chests brought on deck , and instructed each man -- there were only eight of us , all told , now -- to arm himself with a cutlass and a brace of fully loaded revolvers , and also to have a loaded gun where he could put his hand upon it at a moment 's notice . Next I caused all fore-and-aft canvas to be loosed , all downhauls cast off , and all halyards ready for hoisting away at a moment 's notice ; and when these orders had been duly executed it seemed to me that we had done everything that was possible . Yet the schooner was still in a very defenceless condition , so far as resisting the simultaneous attack of several hundred determined natives was concerned : we might empty our firearms upon them , and if every shot told -- which was most unlikely , in the excitement attendant upon an attack -- we should kill or wound precisely fifty-six of them ; after which the eight of us would be fighting , hand to hand , with the remainder , who would outnumber us by at least twenty to one , and probably twice that number !