he cowardly scoundrels
retreated among the chained slaves, believing that their enemies would
not dare to fire, for fear of wounding the poor blacks also. They
counted, however, without their host. Never was there a cooler fellow
than Dick Needham, and, getting his musket ready, he ran forward, and
judging where the Spaniards had stowed themselves, picked out a couple
of them from the very middle of the blacks; then leaping down, cutlass
in hand, followed by three of his shipmates, they very soon made the
rest of the wretches cry out for quarter. When Jack and Terence looked
around the deck they found it cleared--not a little to their surprise.
What had become of Don Diogo?

"The villain must have gone below, and will be blowing us all up!"
exclaimed Terence, rushing aft.

Forward he certainly was not, or Jack would have seen him. They both,
pistol in hand, rushed into the cabin, expecting to have a desperate
encounter with the fierce little Spaniard. The door gave way before
them.

"Hillo! the fellow is not here," cried Jack.

"Then he's concealed somewhere," answered Paddy. "It's very unpleasant
to feel that any moment he may be sending us up like rockets into the
sky. I wish that we could rout him out before he commits any mischief."

Just then they were recalled on deck by the shout of one of their men.
They hurried out of the cabin, and, looking over the quarter, they saw
what they would have perceived before had they looked in the right
direction. The Don, with six or seven of his followers, had jumped into
their own gig, and was pulling away with might and main towards the
shore. Jack and Terence at first thought of following him in the
cutter, but then there was the danger of the Spaniards left on board
rising, and overpowering the rest of the English. He also would
certainly not yield without a most desperate resistance.

"The Don will say that exchange is no robbery," exclaimed Paddy, "we had
better let him go. He has got our gig, and we have got his schooner,
and a very magnificent craft she is, with 400 or 500 slaves on board.
We can well spare him the gig."

Jack agreed to this, but suggested that if the sea-breeze reached them
soon, they might still catch the Don by the ear. Meantime they set to
work to secure the slaver's crew. Many of the villains had stowed
themselves away among the slaves, and were endeavouring to let them
loose, telling them that the English had come to murder the