"Meanwhile, the crowd seems to be taking a considerable amount of interest in us." "And very naturally, too!" replied Zaidie.

"Don't you think we might go down now and see if we can make ourselves understood in any way?
You can have the guns ready in case of accidents, but I don't think they'll try and hurt us now.

Look, the gentleman with the red sash is making signs." "I think we can go down now all right," replied Redgrave, "because it's quite certain they can't use the poison-guns on us without killing themselves as well.

Still, we may as well have our own ready.

Andrew, get that port Maxim ready.