We cut them loose, the Baas and I.There on the island sleep two-and-twenty men--all save one: there they sleep, and when they wake what will they find?
They will find themselves on a little isle in the middle of great waters, into which, even if they could, they will not dare to swim because of the alligators.

They can get no food on the island, for they have no guns and ducks do not stop to be caught, but outside the alligators will wait in hundreds to catch _them_.

By-and-by they will grow hungry--they will shout and yell, but none will hear them--then they will become mad, and, falling on each other, they will eat each other and die miserably one by one.

Some will take to the water, those will drown or be caught by the alligators, and so it shall go on till they are all dead, every one of them, dead, dead, dead!" and again Otter chuckled.
Leonard did not reprove him; with the talk of these wretches yet echoing in his ears he could feel little pity for the horrible fate which would certainly overtake them.
Hark! a faint sound stole across the quiet waters, a sound which grew into a clamour of fear and rage.

The slavers had awakened, they had found the dead man in their midst mysteriously slain by an invisible foe.