le
of the ship--unless his gaze had happened to have been attracted by an
occasional momentary flashing gleam of silvery light--because its colour
so artfully matched the delicate steely blue grey of the gently-rippled
sea that it was absolutely invisible beyond that distance. Even at the
distance of _half_ a mile a cursory careless glance ahead might have
easily missed it. But when a quarter of a mile only intervened between
it and the barque the look out man, had he been wide-awake and with all
his wits about him, would suddenly have become conscious that a large
boat, painted grey, and full of men, was pulling swiftly and noiselessly
toward the ship. On she swept, silently as a dream; not a word was
uttered on board her; there was no warning roll and rattle of the oars
in the rowlocks to apprise the sleeping crew of the approach of danger;
there was not even the plashing sound of the oar-blades dipping into the
water, they rose and fell silently as the misty oars of a phantom boat;
and when at length she swept up alongside the _Aurora_, a _sign_ was all
that was needed to convey the orders of the officer in charge to his
crew: his right hand was gently raised, the oars were noiselessly lifted
from the rowlocks and laid in without a sound upon the padded thwarts,
the boat sheered alongside, without absolutely touching, the painter was
made fast to the _Aurora's_ fore-chains, and sixteen armed figures
climbed noiselessly as ghosts over the bulwarks, leaving two in charge
of the boat.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN.

SOLD INTO SLAVERY.

When George Leicester retired to his cabin that night, it was with the
full intention to at once retire to his cot. Instead, however, of doing
this, he flung himself down on the sofa, to indulge in a few minutes of
entirely undisturbed thought, and there sleep overtook him.

From this he was abruptly startled into complete wakefulness by a sudden
cry, immediately followed by a confused sound of struggling on deck, and
of a dull crunching blow, a cry of "Oh, God! have mercy upon my dear--"
another blow, a heavy fall on the planking overhead, a deep groan, and
then a splash in the water alongside.

Conscious at once that something terrible had happened, he sprang to his
feet, buckled on his cutlass, and, snatching up a pistol in one hand and
a lamp in the other, hurriedly stepped out of the cabin to investigate.
He was just in time to encounter at the foot of the companion-ladder a
motley