that might be done in that way by a man of
energy with a reasonable amount of capital; and with them went their
three children, Frank, Mary, and Susie, aged respectively eleven, eight,
and six years. And finally, there were Messrs. Fielder, Acutt, Boyne,
Pearson, and Taylor--five young men ranging from seventeen to twenty-one
years of age, who were going out to take up appointments in the
Company's service. All these people were very kind and nice to me, but
I could not help being secretly amused at the fiery energy with which
the general denounced what he characterised as "the criminal
carelessness" of Captain Bentinck in turning me adrift in an unarmed
schooner with a crew of only fourteen hands.

"By Jove, sir, I call it little short of murder," he shouted. "The idea
of asking you--ay, and expecting you--to take a fully-loaded slaver into
port with only fourteen men to back you up, and no guns! The man ought
to be ashamed of himself! But it is just like you navy fellows; you are
constantly asking one another to do things which seem impossible!"

"Yes, sir," I said demurely, "and not infrequently we do them."

"Do them!" he exploded. "Yes, I will do you the credit to admit that
you never know when you are beaten; and that, I suppose, is why the
blue-jackets so often succeed in performing the apparently impossible.
But that in no way weakens my contention that your captain was guilty of
a piece of most culpable negligence in sending you away without
furnishing you with a battery of guns with which to defend yourself and
your ship!"

Fortunately, at this moment the breakfast bell rang, and, the general
and his wife leading the way, we all trooped into the saloon and seated
ourselves at the elegantly furnished and bountifully provided breakfast
tables.

During the progress of the meal I of course had a further opportunity to
observe the behaviour of the skipper, and when I rose from the table I
was obliged to confess to myself that I was puzzled, for I had been
quite unable to arrive at any distinct impression of the character of
the man. For while, on the one hand, his manner to me was cordial, with
the somewhat rough and unpolished geniality of a man of a coarse and
violent temperament striving to conquer his natural disposition and
render himself agreeable, I could find no fault with the arrangements he
proposed to make for my own comfort and that of my men. And his
expressions of sympathy with us in our