Thereupon the whole party, with the exception of one solitary individual, whom I took to be Jose, who was told off to keep watch and ward upon the wharf, filed off along the wharf and up the pathway that led to the house from which we had fled but a few hours before.  It took them some twenty minutes to reach the bungalow, and ten minutes later I saw a mob of men issue from it and disappear inland.  For a few minutes their shouts could be heard as they called to each other, and then a dead silence fell upon the scene, broken only by the chirping and "chirring" of the myriads of insects that haunted the bushy growth with which the whole face of the country was covered, and the occasional call of a bird.  As for Jose, his first act, upon being left to himself, was to scrutinise carefully the whole face of the visible country, under the sharp of his hand, and then seat himself in the shadow of the capstan- house, light his pipe, and abandon himself to the soothing influence of the "weed."