e daren't interfere with any
plantation where the blacks are employed."

"No, I suppose not; but it would be a glorious change if we got orders
to land at one of the islands and could pick up some news or another."

"What sort of news?"

"What sort? Why, information that a slaver was expected to land a
consignment, and then--"

"Oh yes, and then! Well, we shall see."

"Yes, we shall see; but I don't believe any of the planters will give us
a bit of information."

"Don't you? I do," said Murray. "There are good planters as well as
bad planters, and I feel full of hope."

"I don't," said Roberts bitterly. "I think we ought to go back to the
West Coast and watch the rivers again. We shall do no good here."

But Murray proved the more likely to be right, for after touching at the
little port of one island, where the _Seafowl_ was visited by the
English gentleman who acted as consul, and who had a long interview with
the officers in the cabin, it became bruited through the vessel that
something important was on the way, and after boats had been sent ashore
and a plentiful supply of fresh water and vegetables taken in, the sloop
set sail again, piloted by a fishing boat. Under its guidance the
_Seafowl_ lay off the shores of what seemed through the glasses to be an
earthly paradise, a perfect scene of verdant beauty, with waving trees
and cultivated fields, sheltered by a central mountain the configuration
of which suggested that it must at one time have been a volcano, one
side of which had been blown away so that a gigantic crater many miles
across formed a lake-like harbour. Into this deep water, after careful
soundings had been taken, the sloop glided and dropped anchor, the pilot
with his two men hoisting sail directly after receiving pay.

"This is something like," said Roberts, rubbing his hands. "I wonder
how soon we shall go ashore."

"Almost directly, I expect," replied Murray.

"Why? What do you know?"

"Not much; only what Mr Anderson let drop to me."

"Let drop to you!" cried Roberts pettishly. "He never lets things drop
to me."

"Well, what does that matter? I always tell you anything that I hear."

"Never mind that. What did Anderson let drop?"

"That the skipper has learned that there is an English gentleman here
who farms a plantation with a number of slaves."

"Well, lots do," said Roberts sharply.

"And on the other side of the island there is a very large sugar
plantatio