Just before leaping from the pi-pi he clasped my hand, and looking significantly at me, exclaimed, 'Now you see--you do what I tell you--ah! then you do good;--you no do so--ah! then you die.' The next moment he waved his spear to the islanders, and following the route that conducted to a defile in the mountains lying opposite the Happar side, was soon out of sight.
A mode of escape was now presented to me, but how was I to avail myself of it?
I was continually surrounded by the savages; I could not stir from one house to another without being attended by some of them; and even during the hours devoted to slumber, the slightest movement which I made seemed to attract the notice of those who shared the mats with me.
In spite of these obstacles, however, I determined forthwith to make the attempt.

To do so with any prospect of success, it was necessary that I should have at least two hours start before the islanders should discover my absence; for with such facility was any alarm spread through the valley, and so familiar, of course, were the inhabitants with the intricacies of the groves, that I could not hope, lame and feeble as I was, and ignorant of the route, to secure my escape unless I had this advantage.

It was also by night alone that I could hope to accomplish my object, and then only by adopting the utmost precaution.
The entrance to Marheyo's habitation was through a low narrow opening in its wicker-work front.

This passage, for no conceivable reason that I could devise, was always closed after the household had retired to rest, by drawing a heavy slide across it, composed of a dozen or more bits of wood, ingeniously fastened together by seizings of sinnate.

When any of the inmates chose to go outside, the noise occasioned by the removing of this rude door awakened every body else; and on more than one occasion I had remarked that the islanders were nearly as irritable as more civilized beings under similar circumstances.
The difficulty thus placed in my way I, determined to obviate in the following manner.