Part 58 (2/2)

”Yes, once: about a mile lower down; but the river was very shallow and insignificant, and I did not think it was worth while to explore there.

But why?”

”Shallow--insignificant!” said the lieutenant bitterly. ”It was big and important enough to float a large lugger--the one we are pursuing.”

”The one that we saw at the mouth of the river when we entered the bay?

I was wondering where that had gone as we came up.”

”No doubt the same,” replied Mr Anderson. ”Well, you've let the enemy slip, Munday.”

”Nonsense! You don't mean that, man?”

”There's no mistake,” said the lieutenant; ”and it means this, that you will have to share the captain's anger and disappointment over my failure.”

”I? But why?”

”For not catching the gang of scoundrels I was driving down before me.

Oh, Munday, you ought to have taken that boat!”

”But how was I to know, man?”

”Don't stop to talk. Run on back and find the lugger if you can, while I keep on down the main stream. We may overtake the wretches after all, and if either of us sees the enemy in the offing of course we must pursue, even if it's right out to sea.”

”But the captain--the _Seafowl_? We must report what has happened.”

”I will, of course, in pa.s.sing. You, if you come up first, need only say that there is a nest of slavers up the river, and that I have had a sharp fight. If the captain has seen the lugger, tell him it is full of a gang of scoundrels who have fired upon us, and that the vessel ought to be sunk.”

”You had better tell him all this yourself, Anderson,” said the second lieutenant, in a whisper that the men could not hear, ”and I wouldn't say a word about my missing the lugger on the way, for he's in a towering rage, and will only be too glad to drop on to me for what I really could not help.”

”No, I suppose not,” said the first lieutenant good-humouredly; ”but you might take your share of his ill-humour.”

”But it is all on account of your being so long away.”

”Well, that was not my fault, man. We've had a rough time of it; but be off sharply, and as to the missing business, follow and catch the scoundrels, and I won't say a word.”

”Oh, I say, Anderson!” protested the second lieutenant.

”Well, there, be off and I'll see.” The second cutter's sails were sheeted home, and she glided off without more being said, while at little more than half the rate the first cutter went on under oars, but well helped by the current; and they had not gone far down the winding river before the silence of the cane brake was broken by a dull report which made the two middies half rise from their seats by their leader.

”That means the _Seafowl_ firing at the lugger to heave to, sir,” said Murray.

”May you be right, my lad,” replied Mr Anderson. ”Step the masts, my lads, and hoist sail.”

The orders were obeyed, and sometimes catching the light breeze and at others helped by the st.u.r.dy pulling at the oars, the cutter sped on, her occupants hearing shots fired from time to time, and reading clearly enough that the occupants of the lugger, if it was she who was being summoned to heave to, had not obeyed, but were racing on and trying to make their escape.

This grew more and more certain as the time glided on, and Roberts went so far as to a.s.sert that he could tell the difference between the unshotted and the shotted guns which followed.

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