Had his hands been free he would, without hesitation, have snatched up a bow and sent an arrow into Tom's heart, to release him from the lingering death which awaited him; and he would then have stabbed himself with a spear.

But while his hands were sufficiently free to move a little, the fastenings were too tight to admit of his carrying out any plan of that sort.
Suddenly an idea struck him, and he began nervously to tug at his fastenings.

The natives, when they seized them, had bound them without examining their clothes.

It was improbable that men in savage attire could have about them any articles worth appropriating.

The knives, indeed, which hung from their belts had been cut off; but these were the only articles which had been touched.
Just as a man approached the fire and, seizing a brand, stooped forward to light the pyre, Ned succeeded in freeing his hands sufficiently to seize the object which he sought.