g with the flare when the stranger, which was
now about half a mile distant, suddenly exhibited a lantern over her
bows, which her people continued to show until we had lighted our second
flare, when the lantern at once disappeared. A couple of minutes later
she was near enough for us to be able to make her out as a full-rigged
ship of some seven hundred tons; and presently she swept grandly across
our bows, at a distance of about a cable's-length, and, putting her helm
down, came to the wind, with her main-topsail to the mast, finally
coming to rest within biscuit-toss of us to windward.

As she did so we became aware of a man standing on her poop, just abaft
the mizzen rigging, and the next moment a hail through a speaking-
trumpet came pealing across the water.

"Ho, the boats ahoy! What boats are those?"

"We are the boats of the slaver _Dolores_, captured by the British
sloop-of-war _Shark_, and subsequently attacked and destroyed by a
pirate," replied I. "We have been in the boats nearly thirty hours, and
several of our people are wounded. We hoped to make our way to Sierra
Leone, but narrowly escaped being swamped in a gale last night. I
presume you will have no objection to receive us?"

The ship being apparently British, I naturally expected to receive an
immediate and cordial invitation to go on board; but, to my intense
surprise, and growing indignation, there ensued a period of silence as
though the man who had hailed us was considering the matter. I was just
about to hail again when the individual seemed to arrive at a decision;
for he hailed:

"All right; bring your boats alongside."

We accordingly dowsed the sails, threw out our oars, and pulled
alongside.

As we approached the lee gangway, which had been thrown open to receive
us, and about which some half a dozen men were clustered, with lighted
lanterns, the man who had hailed us before enquired:

"Will your wounded be able to come up the side; or shall I reeve a whip
with a boatswain's-chair for them?"

"Thanks," I replied, "I think we may be able to manage, if your people
will lend us a hand."

"How many do you muster?" asked the stranger, presumably the master of
the vessel.

"Ten, all told," I answered, "of whom six are more or less hurt. We
were fifteen to start with, but five were killed by the fire of the
pirate."

"I'm afraid you've had a bad time, takin' it all round," said our
interlocutor. "Stand by, chaps, to lend t