he fotches down de ducks
and snipe, and a man isn't so hard to hit as dem."

"Granted," said I; "but a snipe has not a loaded gun in his claws,
like a Spaniard, friend Pegtop."

"Makes no difference, massa," replied Pegtop, decidedly. "Saw massa
Aaron, myself, fight robbers, and helped him to kill de debbils, too.
Massa Aaron fight? Don't say nothin' more about dat."

"Very well," said I; "and is Master Gelid going to fight."

"B'lieve he will; fust rate friend of massa Bangs--good at shootin'
ducks, too--guess he'll fight."

"Ah," said I, "your friends are all heroes, Pegtop. Will Master
Wagtail also fight?"

Pegtop came closer to me, and said in a low, mysterious voice:

"Aint so sartin about him, massa; nice little fat man, but tinks too
much of his belly. Not 'zactly sartin if he'll fight or not."

With these words, Pegtop and the two other blacks, Chin-Chin and
Zampa, Wagtail's and Gelid's servants, took a couple of guns apiece,
and providing themselves with the necessary ammunition, went aft, and
began carefully cleaning and oiling the weapons. I had expected that
the wind would blow fresher at daybreak, but I was mistaken. Well,
thought I, we might as well sit down to breakfast, which we
accordingly did.

The wind soon died away entirely, and I ordered out the sweeps, but I
soon found that we had no chance of overtaking the slaver in that way,
and it was just as much out of the question to attack him with our
boats. Besides, as we did not know at what moment we might ourselves
be attacked, I was unwilling to fatigue my men by compelling them to
row under a burning sun, whilst the enemy could man his oars with
lusty slaves, and not use a single man of his crew. Accordingly, I
ordered the men to desist, and remained all day on deck, watching the
brig, which was gradually leaving us. At noon I ordered the boatswain
to pipe to dinner. When the men had finished their meal, they came on
deck again, and as the calm still continued, and there was no prospect
of a wind springing up, we sat down to dinner in the cabin. Very
little was spoken by any of us. My friends were brave men, but still
they could not help feeling glad that they had escaped an engagement,
which would bring them danger without profit. As for myself, my
feelings were of a mixed nature, for though I was determined to use
every endeavor to bring the enemy to an engagement, yet I confess that
my heart would not have been broken had he escaped u