kicking his feet from under him, lashed him securely with the end of the
topgallant brace. This done, he once more dived below, and in due time
two more Spaniards, senseless and bleeding, were brought up out of the
cabin and secured.

"There," he said, wiping the perspiration from his forehead, "I think we
shall now manage to make the rest of our trip unmolested, and without
having constantly before our eyes the fear of being blown clear across
the Congo. Let me take the wheel; I am sure you must be sadly in need
of a spell. But before you do anything else I will get you to clap a
bandage of some sort round my arm here; I am bleeding so profusely that
I think the bullet must have severed an artery. Here is my
handkerchief, clap it round the arm and haul it as taut as you can; the
great thing just now is to stop the bleeding; Doctor Burnett will do all
that is necessary for us when we reach the sloop."

I bound up his arm after a fashion, making a good enough job of it to
stop the bleeding, and then went forward to keep a look-out. We were
foaming down the river at a tremendous pace, the gale being almost dead
fair for us, and having the additional impetus of a red-hot tide under
foot we swept down past the land as though we had been a steamer. Sooth
to say, however, I scarcely felt in cue just then either to admire the
_Josefa's_ paces or to take much note of the wonderful picture presented
by the river, with its brown mud-tinted waters lashed into fury by the
breath of the tropical tempest and chequered here and there with the
shadows of the scurrying clouds, or lighted up by the phosphorescence
which tipped each wave with a crest of scintillating silvery stars. The
wound in my shoulder was every moment becoming more excruciatingly
painful and more exacting in its demands upon my attention; my interest
seemed to centre itself upon the _Daphne_ and her surgeon; and it was
with a feeling of ineffable relief that, on jibing round Shark Point,
about an hour and a half after clearing the creek, I saw at a distance
of about seven miles away an indistinct object off Padron Point which I
knew must be the _Daphne_ at anchor.

"Do you see the sloop, sir?" I hailed.

"No," returned Smellie from his post at the wheel, stooping and peering
straight into the darkness. "I cannot make her out from here. Do you
see her?"

"Yes, sir," I replied joyously; "there she is, broad on our port bow.
Luff, sir, you may."

"Luff,