ad been evidently made for your reception; and the
_ultimate result_ about which you inquire so anxiously will, I hope, be
a nice little bit of prize-money to all hands, and richly deserved
promotion to yourself, Armitage, and young Williams."

It was now Smellie's turn to look surprised.

"You astonish me, sir," he said. "The last I remember of the affair is
that, after a most stubborn and protracted fight, in which the schooner
was sunk, we succeeded in gaining possession of the brig, only to be
blown out of her a few minutes later, however; and my own impression--
and Hawkesley's too, for that matter, as I afterwards discovered on
comparing notes with him--was that our losses must have amounted to at
least half of the men composing the expedition."

"Well," said Captain Vernon, "I am happy to tell you that you were
mistaken. Our total loss over that affair amounts to four men killed;
but the severity of the fight is amply testified to by the fact that not
one man out of the whole number escaped without a wound of some kind,
more or less serious. They have all recovered, however, I am happy to
say, and we have not at present a sick man in the ship. There can be no
doubt that the slavers somehow received timely notice of our presence in
the river, through the instrumentality of your fair-speaking friend, the
skipper of the _Pensacola_, I strongly suspect, and that they made the
best possible use of the time at their disposal. Had I been as wise
then as I am now my arrangements would have been very different.
However, it is easy to be wise after the event; and I am thankful that
matters turned out so well. And now, I think we are fairly entitled to
hear your story."

Thereupon Smellie launched out into a detailed recital of all that had
befallen us from the moment of the explosion on board the brig up to our
unexpected arrival that same night alongside the _Daphne_. He was
interrupted by countless exclamations of astonishment and sympathy; and
when he had finished there seemed to be no end to the questions which
one and another was anxious to put to him. In the midst of it all,
however, Burnett broke in with the announcement that, having finished
with me, he was ready to attend to the second lieutenant.

The worthy medico's attentions to me had been, as may be gathered from
the fact that they outlasted Smellie's story, of somewhat protracted
duration, and that they were of an exceedingly painful character I