pt heaving the lead, which showed that
the brig was slowly shoaling her water. At length she was hove-to, and
two boats were lowered. Their own lieutenant, Hemming, who had escaped
with them from a sinking slaver, volunteered to take charge of one of
them, and Evans, the second lieutenant of the brig, went in the other.
The former, as the senior officer, had charge of the expedition.

"As she cannot have escaped along shore, and certainly has not
evaporated into the air, the chase must have got into some creek or
inlet, the mouth of which we cannot distinguish," observed the captain.
"You will therefore search for such an entrance, and pursue, and bring
her out if you can."

"Ay, ay, sir!" answered Hemming, delighted with the work in prospect.

The three midshipmen got leave to go in the boat. Jack accompanied
Evans, the other two went with Hemming, as did Jack's old follower Dick
Needham. Away they pulled in high spirits. As they approached the
shore they observed that a long line of white surf was breaking heavily
on it. Hemming stood up and scanned the coast narrowly, thinking that
after all the schooner might have been run on shore, and as slavers are
but slightly put together, might have speedily been knocked to pieces.
As he stood up, and the boat rose to the top of the swell, he saw not
what he expected, but a piece of clear water inside a narrow spit of
sand, and a little to the south he observed a spot where the surf broke
less heavily, and which he concluded was the entrance to the creek or
river.

"I have little doubt that this must be the place where the schooner has
taken refuge; and as she has gone up, so may we," shouted Hemming,
pointing it out to his brother officer.

Evans agreed with him, and the two boats pulled away in the direction
indicated. That there was an entrance was evident, but it required
great caution in approaching it. A capsize would probably prove fatal
to all hands--for had any escaped drowning, they would have fallen a
prey to the sharks, which in southern latitudes generally maintain a
strict blockade at the mouths of rivers, to pick up any offal which the
stream may bring down. The boats rose and fell on the smooth swells as
they came rolling in. At last Hemming observed a space on the bar clear
of broken water. He gave the signal to go ahead.

"Now, my lads, now pull away," he shouted.

The boats dashed on, the surf roared and foamed on either side of them,
and