"Den I go an' look for him!" exclaimed Tom. "He go search for my boy,
what I do better dan go look for him?"

"O do, do!" cried Mary, springing up. "I would go too if I could be of
any use."

"You do not know the character of the country, Miss Mary," said Charley;
"but if Tom would go, if he escapes being caught by the Arabs, he would
have a better chance of finding him than any one else. How to get there
would be the difficulty, unless he could obtain a passage on board a
man-of-war going out to the coast."

"Yes, yes, I go!" cried Tom; "I find a way, nebber fear."

"We must think the matter over, and consider what can be done," said the
lieutenant. "Ask your father, Charley, to come here and give me the
benefit of his advice, and I will write to Hanson, they'll have his
address at the Admiralty, and he will come down here and tell us what he
thinks best, or I'll go up to London myself and see their lordships.
They would not wish a promising young officer to be lost without taking
all possible steps for his recovery."

Charley's spirits rose as he found his friends even more sanguine than
himself as to the finding of Ned. They talked on and on without any
material alteration in their proposed plan. The lieutenant said that he
would write to Mr Farrance, as in duty bound, to tell him of Ned's
disappearance, and to ask his advice. "He has the means of helping us,
and judging from the generous way in which he has acted towards Ned, I
feel sure that we can rely on him," he observed.

Charley went back with a message to his father, who came over that
evening, and the subject was again discussed in all its bearings, indeed
the old lieutenant could think and talk of nothing else. He had, in the
meantime, despatched his letters to Mr Farrance and the late first
lieutenant of the "Ione," and determined, by the advice of Mr Meadows,
to take no steps until he heard from them.

The next day Charley again came over, and greatly interested Mary and
her aunt by the account he gave of their adventures in the Indian Ocean.
He inspired Mary with a strong wish to see the horrible traffic in
slaves put an end to.

"If I had a fortune I would devote it to that object," she exclaimed
enthusiastically. "What sufferings the poor little children have to
endure; and then the agony of their parents as they are dragged off from
their homes to die on their way to the sea, or on board those horrible
dhows, or to be carried into