d in
through the gap that was made was principally confined to its leaving a
thick deposit of mud.

The doctor tried all he could to persuade the Count to take up his abode
upon the schooner, and offered to accommodate as many men as he liked to
bring with him, but he would not hear of it, and, as Rodd said
laughingly to Morny, insisted upon living all upon one side and climbing
instead of walking about the deck.

Then all at once there was a surprise. It was on the third day, when
Joe Cross and his mate had called in the aid of a couple more to help
drag the ponderous roughed-out piece of crooked timber to the waterside
ready for the carpenter and his men to work into shape with their adzes,
and while the latter were slaving away at high pressure to get all
possible done before they were stopped by the tide, that, in obedience
to a shout from Captain Chubb, all the men of the schooner's crew
hurried to their boat to get on board, while those of the brig hurried
to their arms ready for any emergency. For coming up with the tide and
round a bend of the river, a large three-masted schooner made its
appearance with what seemed to be quite a large crew of well-armed men
clustering forward, and apparently surprised at seeing that the river
had its occupants already there.

"What do you make of them, sir?" shouted the skipper through his
speaking trumpet.

"A foreigner--Spanish, I think," shouted back the Count, after lowering
his spy-glass. "Same here, sir. Slaver, I think." The fact of her
proving to be a slaver did not mean that an attack was looming in the
future, but slaving vessels upon the West Coast of Africa bore a very
bad reputation, and the preparations that were rapidly made did not
promise much of a welcome.

As the stranger drew near it was evident that busy preparations were
being made there too, but in his brief colloquy with Uncle Paul the
skipper grunted out that he did not think the foreign vessel meant to
attack, but to be ready to take care of herself in case the English
schooner tried to surprise her and make her a prize.

"We ought to have taken the boat," he said, "and gone up. It seems to
me that there must be a town up there somewhere--savage town, of course,
belonging to some chief, for it aren't likely that there can be three of
us all coming out here into this river on a scientific cruise. Two's
curious enough, English and French, but a Spaniel won't do at all. For
that's what she