es to
rest at night."

"That is quite patent to us all," answered Mendouca drily. "But then,
you know, he may not be running short of food and water, as we are.
Or--he may not be a slaver."

"Of course," I assented, with the best accent of indifference that I
could assume. "But, slaver or no slaver, I have not been able to detect
a sign of life on board that brig for the last half-hour, or indeed from
the moment when I first began to watch her. I can make out the faint
light of her binnacle lamps, and that is all. But the fact of their
being allowed to continue shining would seem to argue, to my mind at
least, that, be they what they may, they have no reason for attempting
to conceal their presence from us. If you feel differently toward them
I think you would do well to extinguish your binnacle lights for awhile;
the helmsman can steer equally well by a star, of which there are plenty
to choose from."

"Yes, of course; you are right," he assented hastily; "there can be no
harm in doing that."

And going to the binnacle, he glanced into it, saw that the ship was
heading on the course he had last set for her, directed the helmsman to
choose a star to steer by, and then himself carefully withdrew the lamps
and extinguished them.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN.

THE AFFAIR OF THE `FRANCESCA' AND THE `BARRACOUTA'S' BOATS.

I continued to industriously scrutinise the brig through the
night-glass, and, by so doing, contrived to keep Mendouca's attention
also pretty closely centred upon her; but I could see that he was fully
on the alert. He appeared to instinctively scent danger in the air, for
he frequently assumed an anxious, listening attitude, with a growing
irritability that manifested itself in repeated execration of the slaves
for the quite unavoidable splashing sounds that they made in working the
sweeps. He was also intently watching the thin crescent of the setting
moon that was by this time hanging on the very verge of the western
horizon; and I suspected that he was awaiting her disappearance to put
in practice some stratagem--such as, perhaps, a further alteration of
the ship's course--as an additional safeguard. But, whatever may have
been his intentions, they were all altered by an unlucky discovery made
by one of the men on the forecastle, who, at the very moment when the
moon was in the act of sinking behind the horizon, caught sight for a
moment of a large boat full of men strongly outlined against th