tish cruiser,
and I dare say he may be lending a hand to the settlers; for he's got
some strange interests to look after there, you know" (here both men
laughed), "and I shouldn't wonder if he was beforehand with us in
pitching into the niggers. He is always ready enough to fight in
self-defense, though we can never get him screwed up to the assaulting
point."

"Aye, we saw something of the fighting from the hilltops; but as it is
no business of ours, I brought the men down, in case they might be
wanted aboard."

"Quite right, Scraggs. You're a judicious fellow to send on a dangerous
expedition. I'm not sure, however, that Gascoyne would thank you for
leaving him to fight the savages alone."

Manton chuckled as he said this, and Scraggs grinned maliciously as he
replied:

"Well, it can't exactly be said that I've _left_ him, seeing that I
have not been with him since we parted aboard of this schooner; and as
to his fightin' the niggers alone, hasn't he got ever so many hundred
_Christian_ niggers to help him to lick the others?"

"True," said Manton, while a smile of contempt curled his lip. "But here
comes the breeze, and the sun wont be long behind it. All the better for
the work we've got to do. Mind your helm there. Here, lads, take a pull
at the topsail halyards; and some of you get the nightcap off Long Tom.
I say, Mr. Scraggs, should we show them the _red_, by way of comforting
their hearts?"

Scraggs shook his head dubiously. "You forget the cruiser. She has eyes
aboard, and may chance to set them on that same red; in which case it's
likely she would show us her teeth."

"And what then?" demanded Manton, "are _you_ also growing
chicken-hearted? Besides," he added, in a milder tone, "the cruiser is
quietly at anchor on the other side of the island, and there's not a
captain in the British navy who could take a pinnace, much less a ship,
through the reefs at the north end of the island without a pilot."

"Well," returned Scraggs, carelessly, "do as you please. It's all one to
me."

While the two officers were conversing, the active crew of the Foam were
busily engaged in carrying out the orders of Manton; and the graceful
schooner glided swiftly along the coast before the same breeze which
urged the Talisman to the north end of the island. The former, having
few reefs to avoid, approached her destination much more rapidly than
the latter, and there is no doubt that she would have arrived first on
the