ranging from six years
old to twelve or thirteen, girls and boys, with even less space allowed
them, in proportion to their size, than their elders. The miserable
wretches were evidently suffering fearfully from starvation and
dysentery. Many were too weak to move, and several on the point of
breathing their last. Five or six of the women had infants in their
arms but a few weeks old. As one of the mothers was brought on deck,
she exhibited her child with its head crushed in, which she intimated
had been done, just after the boat had been discovered in pursuit, by
one of the Arabs, because the child had been crying somewhat lustily.

"Let's see the fellow who did it," exclaimed Desmond, "and we'll pay him
off for his barbarity."

The woman understood him, and looked about among the crew till her eye
fell on the wounded Arab, who still lay writhing on the deck.

"Is that he?" asked Desmond. "Well, he has got his due, and little pity
any of us can feel for him."

The midshipmen, with their cargo of slaves and villainous prisoners,
found themselves in a very trying position, requiring the full exercise
of all their wits and energies. Probably, had Adair had time to
consider, he would not have left them with so small a force on board;
but his eagerness to overtake the other dhow prevented him from
reflecting on the difficulties and dangers they would have to encounter.

Their first care was to try and ameliorate the condition of the slaves.
Search was made for such food and water as the dhow contained, and the
Arabs were ordered to prepare a hearty meal for them--a task they set
about with no very good grace. The only provisions they discovered were
rice and millet seed, with scarcely drinkable water, and of these in
most limited portions, on which the slaves would have had to subsist
till the termination of their voyage. No wonder that many had died, and
that nearly all looked more like living skeletons than human beings.

"If we'd had Dick Needham on board, he'd have told us how they managed
with slavers captured on the West Coast," observed Archie.

"I'll tell you," said Jerry Bird; "I've seen many a one taken. The best
way is to get up forty or fifty at a time on deck and set them dancing.
It seems to put new life into them, bad as they may be."

The midshipmen followed Jerry's advice at once, and released fifty of
the men, who crawled up and squatted down on either side of the deck. A
mess of rice, wi