ed the stranger,
"Howsomedever, I will come and have a palaver with you, and hear the
news, for I have not set eyes on any white chaps for I don't know how
long."

Of course we told our new friend that we should be glad of his company,
and he, followed by the blacks, went with us towards the boat.

"You don't happen to have any liquor aboard?" he asked. "It is a mighty
long time since I have tasted a drop."

I was obliged to confess that we had no spirits, though we had still
some of the tea the missionaries had given us. He looked much
disappointed, and made a remark about the missionaries which I need not
repeat. They were evidently not in his good graces.

He and his companions had seated themselves before the fire, when we
gave them some tea sweetened with sugar, which seemed to their taste.
They also condescended to eat the remainder of our fish, though the
white man told us they were precious badly cooked. I saw Sam Pest
looking at him while he was eating. At last Sam, seating himself by his
side, said--

"Well, Dan Hogan, you seem to have forgotten me."

"No, I haven't, now you speak, though I do not know what I might have
done if you had not opened your lips."

Though the two were old shipmates, they did not even shake hands, but
sat eagerly talking together for some time, regardless of the rest of
us. I could scarcely make out what they said. Sam, at last getting up,
came towards me, and said--

"This 'ere old shipmate of mine has given me some news which you will be
glad to hear for one thing, though not for another. The schooner has
got safe into port, and is not far off from this."

"Safe!" I exclaimed, my heart bounding with joy, and I shouted the news
to Charlie and the rest.

"Safe into port, but I did not say she was safe," said Sam. "In the
first place, from what he tells me, she's carried away her mainmast, and
seeing that she cannot put to sea, some of his black friends have made a
plot to get hold of her, and if they do, they'll not leave any of those
aboard alive. The captain, I know, keeps a sharp look-out; but they're
cunning rascals, and will try, if they can, to circumvent him."

"How far off is she? How soon can we get there?" I asked eagerly. I
could feel my heart beating as I spoke.

"He says about thirty miles, more or less, round the coast, though it is
little more than a quarter of that distance across country."

"Then couldn't we go over land, and warn my bro