n."

The wine and cigars were brought; we helped ourselves; and I began--

"I am very much obliged to you for coming aboard, Senor Lobo, for you
are the very man that I most desired to see. I require some assistance
of a rather peculiar kind, and I believe that you, above all others, are
the one who can best help me to it."

Lobo bowed and smiled, sipped his wine, and assured us that he was in
all things our very obedient, humble servant, and that nothing pleased
him so much as to be of assistance to the man-o'-war gentlemen, who
honoured the river by paying it an occasional visit. At the same time--
he pointed out--his friendly relations with those same man-o'-war
gentlemen, and the services that he had been so glad to render them from
time to time were, if not well known, at least very strongly suspected
by the slavers and slave-dealing fraternity generally who used the Congo
for their nefarious purposes; and in incurring this suspicion he also
incurred a very serious risk, both to property and life, for which he
considered that he was justly entitled to be remunerated on a generous
scale.

"Most assuredly," I agreed. "And I may tell you at once, Senor Lobo,
that I am prepared to reward you very munificently for the efficient and
faithful performance of the service that I require of you; I am
prepared, in fact, to offer you no less a reward than _your life_. Ah,
you turn pale, I see; and well you may when I inform you that your true
character is by this time known to probably every British commander on
the coast; you are known as a bare-faced traitor to the cause that you
have pretended so zealously to serve, and I don't mind mentioning to
you, in confidence, that, if this ship had happened to be the
_Barracouta_ instead of the _Felicidad_ you would now in all probability
have been dangling from one of that ship's yard-arms, as a wholesome
warning and example to all betrayers--Nay, keep your seat, man; there is
a sentry outside the door, and you are a prisoner beyond all possibility
of escape. But you have no cause for fear on that account, provided
that you can prevail upon yourself to act honestly for once. I require
a certain service from you, and I promise you that if you render that
service faithfully I will set you free at the termination of the
adventure, with full liberty to seek safety by flight elsewhere. But
until the adventure of which I speak is brought to a favourable
conclusion, you are my pr