g for it,
that we are--just about half mad."

"For prize money?" said Roberts sourly.

"Prize money, sir?" replied the man. "Why, of course, sir. It's a
Bri'sh sailor's nature to like a bit of prize money at the end of a
v'y'ge; but, begging your pardon, sir, don't you make no mistake. There
arn't a messmate o' mine as wouldn't give up his prize money for the
sake of overhauling a slaver and reskying a load o' them poor black
beggars. It's horrid; that's what it just is."

"Quite right, May," said Roberts.

"Thankye, sir," said the man; "and as we was a-saying on'y last night--
talking together we was as we lay out on the deck because it was too
stuffycatin' to sleep."

"So it was, May," said Roberts.

"Yes, sir; reg'lar stifler. Well, what we all agreed was that what we
should like to do was to set the tables upside down."

"What for?" said Murray, giving his comrade a peculiar glance from the
corner of his eye.

"Why, to give the poor niggers a chance to have a pop at some of the
slavers' crews, sir, to drive 'em with the whip and make 'em work in the
plantations, sir, like dumb beasts. I should like to see it, sir."

"Well said, Tom!" cried Murray.

"Thankye, sir. But it's slow work ketching, sir, for you see it's their
swift craft."

"Which makes them so crafty, eh, Tom?" cried Murray.

"Yes, sir. I don't quite understand what you mean, sir, but I suppose
it's all right, and--"

"Sail on the lee bow!" sang out a voice from the main-top.

CHAPTER TWO.

BOTHER THE FOG.

A minute before those words were shouted from the main-top, the
low-toned conversation carried on by the two young officers, with an
occasional creak or rattle from a swinging sail was all that broke the
silence of the drowsy vessel; now from everywhere came the buzz of
voices and the hurrying trample of feet.

"It's just as if some one had thrust a stick into a wasp's nest,"
whispered Frank Murray to his companion, as they saw that the captain
and officers had hurried up on deck to follow the two lads' example of
bringing their spy-glasses to bear upon a faintly seen sail upon the
horizon, where it was plainly marked for a few minutes--long enough to
be made out as a low schooner with raking masts, carrying a heavy spread
of canvas, which gradually grew fainter and fainter before it died away
in the silvery haze. The time was short, but quite long enough for
orders to be sharply given, men to spring up aloft, and th