uite out of the question that a
start could be made at once. A small steamer they had already secured on
charter, but she had to be manned, coaled, and provisioned, and all
these things are not carried out as quickly in Lagos as they would be in
Liverpool, even though there was a Kettle in command to do the driving.
And, moreover, there were cablegrams to be sent, in tedious cypher, to
London and elsewhere, to make the arrangements on which the success of
the scheme would depend.

The Jew was the prime mover in all this cabling. He had abundance of
money in his pocket, and he spent it lavishly, and he practically lived
in the neighborhood of the telegraph office. He was as affable as could
be; he drank cocktails and champagne with the telegraph staff whenever
they were offered; but over the nature of his business he was as close
as an oyster.

A breath of suspicion against the scheme would wreck it in an instant,
and, as there was money to be made by carrying it through, the easy,
lively, boisterous Mr. White was probably just then as cautious a man as
there was in Africa.

But preparations were finished at last, and one morning, when the tide
served, the little steamer cast off from her wharf below the Marina, and
steered for the pass at the further side of the lagoon.

The bar was easy, and let her through with scarcely so much as a bit of
spray to moisten the dry deck planks, and Sheriff pointed to the masts
of a branch-boat which had struck the sand a week before, and had beaten
her bottom out and sunk in ten minutes, and from these he drew good
omens about this venture, and at the same time prettily complimented
Kettle on his navigation.

But Kettle refused to be drawn into friendliness. He coldly commented
that luck and not skill was at the bottom of these matters, and that if
the bar had shifted, he himself could have put this steamer on the
ground as handily as the other man had piled up the branch-boat. He
refused to come below and have a drink, saying that his place was on the
bridge till he learned from observation that either of the two mates was
a man to be trusted. And, finally, he inquired, with acid formality, as
to whether his employers wished the steamer brought to an anchor in the
roads, or whether they would condescend to give him a course to steer.

Sheriff bade him curtly enough to "keep her going to the s'uth'ard," and
then drew away his partner into the stifling little chart-house. "Now,"