ly, "but all the same I felt bound
to be cautious. I have given the marines orders to be ready to fire at
the slightest sign of an attempt to get away."

"You have, sir? Bravo!" said Murray, in the same low tone, and without
seeming to be talking to his chief if they were observed. "But I did
not hear you speak to the jollies."

"No, Mr Murray; I did not mean you to, and I did not shout. But this
caution is, after all, unnecessary, for there comes the sloop to look
after us. Look; she is rounding that tree-covered headland."

"Better and better, sir!" cried Murray excitedly. "I was beginning to
fidget about the lugger."

"What about her, Mr Murray?"

"Beginning to feel afraid of her slipping away as soon as we were out of
sight."

"You think, then, that the lugger's people might be on the watch?"

"Yes, sir."

"Quite possible," said the lieutenant. "Well, we have her safe now."

"Yes, sir; but won't you heave to and wait?"

"To be sure, yes, Mr Murray; a good idea; and let the sloop sail up to
us?"

"Won't it make the captain storm a bit, sir, and ask sharply why we
didn't make haste and join?"

"Most likely, Mr Murray," said the lieutenant quietly; "but if he does
we have two answers."

"The lugger, sir."

"Yes, Mr Murray, and the discovery of the schooner."

"Waiting to be boarded, sir," said the midshipman.

"Exactly, Mr Murray. Any one make out the second cutter?"

"Ay, ay, sir!" cried Tom May. "There she is, sir--miles astarn of the
_Seafowl_, sir."

"I wish we could signal to her to lay off and on where she is."

"What for, sir?"

"There may be one of the narrow entrances to the great river
thereabouts, and the wider the space we can cover, the greater chance we
shall have of preventing the slaver from stealing away."

CHAPTER FOUR.

THE YANKEE'S FOOD.

"Grand, Mr Anderson," said the captain, after a time. But his first
words had come pouring out like a storm of blame, which gave the first
lieutenant no opportunity to report what he had done. "Yes: could not
be better sir. There, we are going to capture a slaver at last!"

"Yes, sir, if we have luck; and to stamp out one of the strongholds of
the accursed trade."

Then the captain became silent, and stood thoughtfully looking over the
side at the indiarubber planter's lugger.

"Humph!" he ejaculated, at last. "Rather a serious risk to run, to
trust to this stranger and make him our guide."

"So it struck me, si