nk there is a noble gentleman among
you--I mean the Senor Xavier--who can vouch for me. Did he not send a
note to Captain Pierre, whose dhow lies in the harbour yonder, hailing
from Madagascar? Well, Captain Pierre has the honour of accepting his
invitation and arrives here, not without difficulty. Now he begins to
think that he would have done better to stick to his ship."

"That is all right, Pereira," said Xavier, a huge Portuguese with a dash
of negro blood and a villainous countenance, the same man whom they had
followed through the gate. "I sent a note to the Senor. I told you of
it."

"Then I wish you had left it alone," snarled Pereira for an answer. "I
don't like your friend's looks. He might be the captain of an English
man-of-war rigged up in our dress."

At the words "English man-of-war" a murmur of fear and anger went
through the assembly. Some of those present had experience of these
hated vessels and their bigoted crews, who loved not this honest
commerce, and to all they were names of ill-omen. Things looked serious,
and Leonard saw that he must do something, and quickly. So he lost his
temper, or pretended to do so.

"Curse you all for a pack of suspicious curs!" he said; "I tell you that
my dhow lies yonder. I am half an Englishman and half a Creole, and as
good a man as any of you. Now look here, Dom Pereira, if you, or any
of your crew, dare to doubt my word, just step out, and I will ram this
down your lying throat;" and placing his hand on the hilt of his sabre,
he took a pace forward and scowled.

The effect was instantaneous. Pereira turned a little pale beneath his
yellow skin, for like most cruel men he was a great coward.

"Put up your pig-sticker," he said; "I see you are one of the right
sort. I only wanted to try you. As you know, we must be careful in our
business. Come and shake hands, brother, and be welcome. I trust you
now, and old Antonio never does things by halves."

"Perhaps you had better try him a little further," said a young man who
was standing near Pereira, as Leonard prepared to accept the invitation;
"send for a slave and let us have the old test--there is none better."

Pereira hesitated and Leonard's blood turned cold.

"Look here, young man," he said more furiously than before, "I have cut
the throats of more men than you have whipped, but if you want a test,
I will give you one. Come down, my young cockerel, come down; there is
plenty of light for comb-snippin