"Ah, now I have it.  Yes, by Jove, Fortescue, you are right, there _is_ something out there; and it looks like--like--ay, and it _is_, too--a body of blacks creeping along toward us on their stomachs!  Why, there must be hundreds of 'em, by the look of it; they reach right across the spit!  Yes, we shall certainly want help, and plenty of it, to keep those fellows at arm's length.  I thought it was only some twenty or thirty when I first made them out.  Yes, cut away to the skipper, Fortescue, as hard as you can pelt; tell him what you've seen; and say that I shall be obliged if he will kindly send me as many men as he can spare.  That disturbance down by the boats seems to have ceased, so he ought to be able to send us a pretty strong reinforcement."