me by the lurid light of the torches they
had ignited.

Very quickly, however, several boxes belonging to Kouaga were lowered,
the moorings were cast off, and slowly the great mail steamer with its
long line of brilliantly-lit ports looking picturesque in the night,
moved onward.

"Good-bye," shouted a voice from the steamer.

"Good-bye," I responded, and as the steamer's bell again rang out, "full
speed ahead," I knew that the last tie that bound us to European
civilization was severed.

CHAPTER IV.

A STRANGE PROMISE.

BY the light of the flambeaux the sleek, black, oily-looking natives
managed their clumsy craft, which, dipping suddenly now and then, shipped
great seas, compelling us to hang on for life. The sails creaked and
groaned as they bent to the wind, speeding on in the darkness towards the
mainland of Africa. To be transferred to such a ship, which I more than
suspected was a slaver, was a complete change after the clean,
well-ordered Liverpool liner, and I must confess that, had we not been in
charge of Kouaga, I should have feared to trust myself among that
shouting cut-throat crew of grinning blacks. Clinging to a rope I stood
watching the strange scene, rendered more weird by the flickering
uncertain light of the torches falling upon the swarm of natives who
manned the craft.

"Are these your mother's people?" I inquired of Omar.

"Some are. I recognize several as our slaves, the remainder are Sanwi, or
natives of the coast. Our slaves, I suppose, have been sent down to be
our carriers."

"Judging from the manner in which they crawl about this is, I should
think, their first experience of the sea," I said.

"No doubt. Over a thousand English miles of desert and almost
impenetrable bush separates the sea from our kingdom, therefore few, very
few of our people have seen it."

"They'll go back with some wonderful tales, I suppose."

"Yes. They will, on their return, be considered heroes of travel, and
their friends will hold feasts in their honour."

As he finished speaking, however, our cumbrous craft seemed suddenly to
be lifted high out of the water, and amid the unearthly yells of the
whole crew we were swept through a belt of foaming surf, until in a few
moments our keel slid upon the sand.

I prepared to leap down upon the beach, but in a second half-a-dozen
willing pairs of arms were ready to assist me, and I alighted in the
midst of a swarm of half-clad, jabbering natives.