o let the
skiff drop down with the tide upon the object he wished well to examine
before venturing to board.

"Has not that ship her nettings triced to the rigging?" he demanded, in a
voice that was lowered to the tones necessary to escape observation, and
which betrayed, at the same time, the interest he took in the reply.

"According to my sight, she has," returned Fid; "your slavers are a little
pricked by conscience, and are never over-bold, unless when they are
chasing a young nigger on the coast of Congo. Now, there is about as much
danger of a Frenchman's looking in here to-night, with this land breeze
and clear sky, as there is of my being made Lord High Admiral of England;
a thing not likely to come to pass soon, seeing that the King don't know a
great deal of my merit."

"They are, to a certainty, ready to give a warm reception to any
boarders!" continued Wilder, who rarely paid much attention to the
amplifications with which Fid so often saw fit to embellish the discourse.
"It would be no easy matter to carry a ship thus prepared, if her people
were true to themselves."

"I warrant ye there is a full quarter-watch at least sleeping among her
guns, at this very moment, with a bright look-out from her cat-heads and
taffrail. I was once on the weather fore-yard-arm of the Hebe, when I
made, hereaway to the south-west, a sail coming large upon us,"--

"Hist! they are stirring on her decks!"

"To be sure they are. The cook is splitting a log; the captain has sung
out for his night-cap."

The voice of Fid was lost in a summons from the ship, that sounded like
the roaring of some sea monster which had unexpectedly raised its head
above the water. The practised ears of our adventurers instantly
comprehended it to be, what it truly was, the manner in which it was not
unusual to hail a boat. Without taking time to ascertain that the plashing
of oars was to be heard in the distance. Wilder raised his form in the
skiff, and answered.

"How now?" exclaimed the same strange voice; "there is no one victualled
aboard here that speaks thus. Whereaway are you, he that answers?"

"A little on your larboard bow; here, in the shadow of the ship."

"And what are ye about, within the sweep of my hawse?"

"Cutting the waves with my taffrail," returned Wilder, after a moment's
hesitation.

"What fool has broke adrift here!" muttered his interrogator. "Pass a
blunderbuss forward, and let us see if a civil answer can't be