Part 8 (1/2)
”No, Mr Murray; I did not mean you to, and I did not shout. But this caution is, after all, unnecessary, for there comes the sloop to look after us. Look; she is rounding that tree-covered headland.”
”Better and better, sir!” cried Murray excitedly. ”I was beginning to fidget about the lugger.”
”What about her, Mr Murray?”
”Beginning to feel afraid of her slipping away as soon as we were out of sight.”
”You think, then, that the lugger's people might be on the watch?”
”Yes, sir.”
”Quite possible,” said the lieutenant. ”Well, we have her safe now.”
”Yes, sir; but won't you heave to and wait?”
”To be sure, yes, Mr Murray; a good idea; and let the sloop sail up to us?”
”Won't it make the captain storm a bit, sir, and ask sharply why we didn't make haste and join?”
”Most likely, Mr Murray,” said the lieutenant quietly; ”but if he does we have two answers.”
”The lugger, sir.”
”Yes, Mr Murray, and the discovery of the schooner.”
”Waiting to be boarded, sir,” said the mids.h.i.+pman.
”Exactly, Mr Murray. Any one make out the second cutter?”
”Ay, ay, sir!” cried Tom May. ”There she is, sir--miles astarn of the _Seafowl_, sir.”
”I wish we could signal to her to lay off and on where she is.”
”What for, sir?”
”There may be one of the narrow entrances to the great river thereabouts, and the wider the s.p.a.ce we can cover, the greater chance we shall have of preventing the slaver from stealing away.”
CHAPTER FOUR.
THE YANKEE'S FOOD.
”Grand, Mr Anderson,” said the captain, after a time. But his first words had come pouring out like a storm of blame, which gave the first lieutenant no opportunity to report what he had done. ”Yes: could not be better sir. There, we are going to capture a slaver at last!”
”Yes, sir, if we have luck; and to stamp out one of the strongholds of the accursed trade.”
Then the captain became silent, and stood thoughtfully looking over the side at the indiarubber planter's lugger.
”Humph!” he e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed, at last. ”Rather a serious risk to run, to trust to this stranger and make him our guide.”