and what a house of enchantment it must be to a boy like
little Jan.

In a few minutes the table was set, and Snorro had poured out the
minister's tea, and put before him a piece of bread and a slice of
broiled mutton. As for himself he could not eat, he only looked at the
doctor with eyes of pathetic anxiety.

"Snorro, dost thou understand that to go to Jan now is to leave,
forever perhaps, thy native land?"

"Wherever Jan is, that land is best of all."

"He will be in Portsmouth ere thou arrive there. First, thou must sail
to Wick; there, thou wilt get a boat to Leith, and at Leith take one
for London. What wilt thou do in London?"

"Well, then, I have a tongue in my head; I will ask my way to
Portsmouth. When I am there it will be easy to find Jan's ship, and
then Jan. What help can thou give me in the matter?"

"That I will look to. Jan hath sent thee L100."

Snorro's face brightened like sunrise. "I am glad that he thought of
me; but I will not touch the money. I have already more than L20. Thou
shalt keep the L100 for little Jan."

"Snorro, he hath also sent the L600 he took from his wife, that and
the interest."

"But how? How could he do that already?"

"He has won it from the men who coin life into gold; it is mostly
prize money."

"Good luck to Jan's hands! That is much to my mind."

"I will tell thee one instance, and that will make thee understand it
better. Thou must know that it is not a very easy matter to blockade
over three thousand miles of African coast, especially as the slave
ships are very swift, and buoyant. Indeed the Spanish and Portuguese
make theirs of very small timbers and beams which they screw together.
When chased the screws are loosened, and this process gives the vessel
amazing play. Their sails are low, and bent broad. Jan tells me that
the fore-yard of a brig of one hundred and forty tons, taken by 'The
Retribution' was seventy-six feet long, and her ropes so beautifully
racked aloft, that after a cannonade of sixty shot, in which upward of
fifty took effect, not one sail was lowered. Now thou must perceive
that a chase in the open sea would mostly be in favor of vessels built
so carefully for escape."

"Why, then, do not the Government build the same kind of vessels?"

"That is another matter. I will go into no guesses about it. But they
do not build them, and therefore captures are mostly made by the boats
which are sent up the rivers to lie in wait for the slavers