Several hours passed, night had fallen on the Venture, and Carl's crew had still not returned from the island. Captain Englehorn paced around nervously on deck, like a tiger in its cage, worrying that something could have gone wrong. It was not Carl he was worried about. Carl was an imbecile. Englehorn was most concerned about his first mate, Jack. He also worried about Long John and Manny, and even Stu and Harold. Englehorn never liked losing his men. Englehorn did not care much about Denham's film crew, for he viewed them as partakers of his foolishness. Theodore was just another conceited actor in the captain's eyes as well. However, Englehorn did find Ann to be a very pleasant young woman. How would he live with the guilt of bringing a lady like her to a deadly uncharted island that could potentially claim her life? How could he have been so foolish to allow Mr. Denham into manipulating him into steering his crew to Skull Island? What was wrong with Indonesia? Why couldn't Carl have filmed there instead? Who was to blame for all of this, Denham, or Englehorn himself? Either way, Englehorn just wanted Miss Darrow and his five missing men back.
Up in the crow's nest, Mr. Suzuki was still on the lookout for the return of Carl's crew. Through his binoculars, he saw Halden afar off, struggling through the waters with three of the Skull Island natives in pursuit. The eleven other people that had gone ashore with Halden were nowhere to be seen, but Mr. Suzuki cared enough to save Halden and perhaps escape Skull Island with him back safely on the ship. The watchman looked down at Englehorn from his crow's nest and screamed, "CAPTAIN! HALDEN'S OUT IN THE WATER! THE NATIVES ARE AFTER HIM! DO SOMETHING!"
"Halden out in the water?!" Englehorn shouted incredulously in response.
Mr. Suzuki dropped his binoculars so that Englehorn could catch them. Once they were in the captain's hands, he looked through them, straight ahead, and saw just what Mr. Suzuki had seen. "Great Scott. BRIGGS!"
"Yes, captain?" Briggs responded.
"Take some men, some firearms, and a lifeboat and try to get Halden out of the water!" Englehorn ordered. "Straight ahead, afar off, the natives are chasing him."
"Aye, captain!" Briggs complied. He then gave a sharp whistle and called out, "Helstrom, get me a lifeboat ready!"
"Aye, Briggs!" Helstrom agreed.
"Joe, Pierre, Peek, Perrault, Stefano, Giuseppe, each of you get a gun and meet me at the lifeboat!" Briggs ordered. Gustavo's sons, Stefano and Giuseppe, along with four other sailors present on deck, Joe, Pierre, Peek, and Perrault, all rushed to the gun storage room immediately.
Meanwhile, Halden was breathing heavily and splashing his tired limbs through the water. His three native chasers were wearing down as well, but still determined to bring him back to the village so that he may be sacrificed to Kong with the others. The ship was still several hundred feet off, but Halden's life was too precious for him to give up. He would either make it back or die trying. Halden may have been a faster swimmer, but the natives' stamina was just a tad bit higher. They were gaining on him, closer, and closer, and closer, and the first one was about to grab onto him until… BARK! CHOMP!
A massive, light brown fur seal emerged from the water and pounced down on that first native, jaws first, drowning him in the water. Halden glanced back, wheezed in fright, and weakly flailed his strained arms and legs. The other two natives turned back and tried to swim back to shore, but the second one was caught and torn limb from limb by four more fur seals, and the third one's head went all the way into the mouth of a single fur seal that dragged him down into the ocean water. Halden looked back as another fur seal emerged and swam after him.
"No, AH!" Halden weakly screamed.
He tried flailing his arms and legs to swim faster, but it was no use as he ran out of energy and sank into the waters. The hungry fur seal descended under the waters after the sinking film director's assistant, closing in on him with open jaws. Once it got close enough, the seal was about to clamp its sharp teeth on Halden's neck, until… BOOM! A bullet from Briggs' pistol ripped into the water and penetrated through the seal's head, killing it.
"Hold my gun," Briggs said, handing his pistol to Joe, a short and skinny bald sailor with a beard of grayish stubble on his face.
Briggs boldly dove into the water and darted down after Halden, successfully grabbing hold of him and pulling him back up above the water. Both men let out a deep gasp for air, and Halden coughed, once back up above the water. Before they could turn back toward the boat, the whole pack of fur seals was rapidly swimming toward them. Some of them had already had teeth and lips stained from the blood of the three natives, but they were hungry for more. The closest ones opened their ravenous jaws, but before they could go in for the kill, Joe and the other sailors on Briggs' rescue boat opened fire. Three fur seals were killed and the others fled in fear.
Briggs swam Halden back to his rescue boat, and once they were both on, Briggs asked him, "Halden, where are Jack and the others?"
"Well… we went to the island, and"- Halden breathily began.
"Doggone it, Halden, I KNOW you went to the island!" Briggs interrupted. "I want to know what happened to Jack and everyone else!"
"Oh, well Jack and the other men… were either knocked out or killed, I don't know… but they were whacked over the heads with these little baseball bat… things," Halden wheezed.
"What about Ann?" Briggs questioned.
"They just dragged her off," Halden moaned.
"Who dragged her off?" Briggs inquired.
"The natives," Halden exhaustively replied. "They're gonna sacrifice her to some monster named Kong. The chief said he was gonna sacrifice all of us if we didn't give him Ann."
"Then Jack and the others are still alive, they've got to be," Briggs reasoned. "They were probably just knocked out. The natives must be holding them hostage and planning to sacrifice them next after Ann. Row us back to the ship, boys. We've got to tell Englehorn about this."
Once Captain Englehorn saw Briggs and his six men rowing Halden back to the ship, through Mr. Suzuki's binoculars, he looked up at his watchman and shouted, "MR. SUZUKI! THEY'VE GOT HIM! THE RESCUE WAS A SUCCESS! THANKS FOR THE CATCH!"
"You're welcome, captain!" Mr. Suzuki answered.
Once Briggs and his men were back on the ship with Halden, Englehorn repeated Briggs' earlier question to Halden, "Halden, where are Jack and the others?"
"The natives captured them, they're gonna sacrifice Ann to some monster named Kong," Halden replied with a slight moan. He was still tired from the long swim but gradually starting to regain his strength and energy.
"Jack and the others are being kept as prisoners, they're going to be next after Ann," Briggs added. "Captain, I don't know if we can get to Ann, but we've got to go to the island, rescue whom we can, and then get the heck out of here."
"Briggs, assemble the rest of the crew and get them ready to set sail, all hands are going ashore!" Englehorn ordered.
"Aye, captain!" Briggs complied. He then cupped his hands around his mouth and shouted, "ALL HANDS ARE GOING ASHORE!"
Mr. Suzuki began climbing down from his crow's nest, and other sailors on Briggs' floor ran across the deck and into the gun storage room. Briggs ran up and down all the floors and into all the rooms of the ship, shouting, "ALL HANDS GOING ASHORE! ALL HANDS GOING ASHORE! ALL HANDS GOING ASHORE!"
Within a few minutes, the entire crew was armed and loaded into four lifeboats. Everyone was going ashore; even the exhausted Halden, the young Freddy, the meek and mild Gustavo, and the heavyset anchorman Helstrom. The island was a few miles off, but there was an orange glow emitting from behind the skull-shaped cavern entrance and into the night sky. The sacrifice had begun. Help was on the way, but would they make it in time? Would they make it alive?