that
same afternoon.

The view which lay spread out below and around me was beautiful as a
dream; it would have formed a fascinating study for a painter; but
whatever art-instincts may have been awakened within me upon my first
glance round were quickly put to flight by a scene which presented
itself at a point only some three miles away. At that distance the
channel or stream below me forked, as I have already said, and at the
point of divergence of the two branches the water way broadened out
until it became quite a mile wide, forming as snug a little harbour as
one need wish to see. And in this harbour, perfectly concealed from all
prying eyes which might happen to pass up or down the river, lay a brig,
a brigantine, and a schooner, three as rakish-looking craft as could
well be met with. Their appearance alone was almost sufficient to
condemn them; but a huge barracoon standing in a cleared space close at
hand, and a crowd of blacks huddled together on the adjacent bank,
apparently in course of shipment on board one or other of the craft in
sight, put their character quite beyond question.

A hail from below reminded me that there were others who would feel an
interest in my discovery.

"Well, Mr Hawkesley, is there anything in sight, from your perch aloft
there, worth looking at?" came floating up to me in the skipper's voice.

"Yes, sir, indeed there is. There are three craft in the creek away
yonder, in the very act of shipping negroes at this moment," I replied.

"The deuce there are!" ejaculated the skipper. "Which do you think will
be the easier plan of the two: to climb the tree, or to make our way
through the bush to the spot?"

"You will find it much easier to climb the tree, I think, sir. You can
be alongside me in five minutes, whilst it will take us nearly two
hours, I should say, to make our way to them through the bush," I
replied.

"Very well; hold on where you are then. We will tackle the tree,"
returned the skipper.

And, looking down, I saw him and the second lieutenant forthwith whip
out their knives and begin hacking away at a creeper, wherewith to make
grummets to assist them in their attempt at tree-climbing.

In a few minutes the twain were alongside me, and--in happy
forgetfulness of the ruin wrought upon their unmentionables in the
process of "shinning" aloft--eagerly noting through their telescopes the
operations in progress on board the slavers.

"They seem very busy t