ctive courses, with mutual
dips of their ensigns, and much waving of white pocket handkerchiefs
from the poop of the _Indian Queen_.

That I should be called upon to relate my story yet once again--this
time to the captain--was, of course, inevitable; but he was considerate
enough to defer the recital until dinner-time that evening, when the
second lieutenant, the master, and myself were guests at his table. He
was very kind and sympathetic in the matter of the loss of the
_Dolores_, which he admitted was inevitable under the circumstances, and
warmly reiterated his expressions of satisfaction at everything that I
had done aboard the _Indian Queen_.

CHAPTER ELEVEN.

A SUCCESSFUL BOAT EXPEDITION.

That same evening we made the land from the mast-head just before
sunset, and four hours later came to an anchor off the mouth of a river,
the bar of which had too little water on it to permit of the passage of
the _Shark_. Our visit to this spot was the result of certain
information which the skipper had acquired a few days previously from
the master of a palm-oil trader hailing from Liverpool, upon the
strength of which he rather hoped to be able to take by surprise an
especially notorious slaver which had long eluded our cruisers, but
which was now stated, upon fairly reliable authority, to be somewhere on
the coast, and was believed to have entered this particular river.

The canvas having been snugly furled, the boats, under the command of
the first lieutenant, the master, the boatswain, and the gunner, were
manned, armed, and dispatched into the river, the whole expedition
being, of course, under the command of Mr Seaton, in whose boat went
Peter Christy, one of the midshipmen, while young Keene, another
midshipman, contrived to smuggle himself down into the master's boat.
Of course I applied for leave to go with the expedition, but, being on
the sick list, was peremptorily forbidden even to dream of such a thing,
for Morgan, our surgeon, declared that in my run-down condition I was
utterly unfit to face the risks of exposure to the fever-laden fog which
would certainly be encountered in the river. The night was not
especially favourable for an expedition intended to take ships by
surprise; for although the sky was somewhat cloudy, it was by no means
sufficiently so to obscure very materially the light of the moon, which
was then in her first quarter. But she would set shortly after
midnight, and meanwhile