om their inglorious retirement, in the fond hope that there
might still be work for them to do; but on observing that the
Portuguese, acting on the principle that discretion is the better part
of valour, had taken the advice and were returning to their own boat, he
relapsed into the sulks, and seated himself doggedly in his place in the
canoe.

During all this little scene, which was enacted much more rapidly than
it had been described, master Jacko, having escaped from the canoe, had
been seated near the edge of the wharf, looking on, apparently, with
deep interest. Just as the Portuguese turned away to embark in their
boat, Ailie's eye alighted on her pet; at the same moment the foot of
the Portuguese commander alighted on her pet's tail. Now the tails of
all animals seem to be peculiarly sensitive. Jacko's certainly was so,
for he instantly uttered a shriek of agony, which was as quickly
responded to by its adopted mother in a scream of alarm as she sprang
forward to the rescue. When one unintentionally treads on the tail of
any animal and thereby evokes a yell, he is apt to start and trip--in
nine cases out of ten he does trip. The Portuguese commander tripped
upon this occasion. In staggering out of the monkey's way he well-nigh
tumbled over Ailie, and in seeking to avoid her, he tumbled over the
edge of the wharf into the river.

The difference between the appearance of this redoubtable slave-buying
hero before and after his involuntary immersion was so remarkable and
great that his most intimate friend would have failed to recognise him.
He went down into the slimy liquid an ill-favoured Portuguese, clad in
white duck; he came up a worse-favoured monstrosity, clothed in mud!
Even his own rascally comrades grinned at him for a moment, but their
grins changed into a scowl of anger when they heard the peals of
laughter that burst from the throats of their enemies. As for Briant,
he absolutely hugged himself with delight.

"Och! ye've got it, ye have," he exclaimed, at intervals. "Happy day!
who'd ha' thought it? to see him tumbled in the mud after all by purty
little Ailie and Jacko. Come here to me Jacko, owld coon. Oh, ye swate
cratur!"

Briant seized the monkey, and squeezed it to his breast, and kissed it--
yes, he actually kissed its nose in the height of his glee, and
continued to utter incoherent exclamations, and to perpetrate
incongruous absurdities, until long after they had descended the riv