in
company with the brig, which will be under the command of Mr Fawcett,
and since I learn that both craft, contrary to the ordinary usage of
slavers, are heavily armed, you are not likely to suffer molestation
this time on your voyage to Sierra Leone."

"Thank you, sir!" said I. "I am very much obliged to you for your
continued confidence in me, which you shall find has not been misplaced;
and, as to my health, I really think I shall get well quicker at sea
than I should by remaining here on the coast. May I have San Domingo
again as cabin steward, sir?"

"Why, yes, certainly, if you like, Mr Grenvile," answered the captain
good-naturedly. "The fellow is rather a good man, I believe, and he
appears to have taken a particularly strong fancy to you. By the way,
there is one thing that I omitted to mention, Mr Grenvile, and that is
that you will have to be your own navigator should you and the brig by
any chance part company, for Mr Freeman will accompany Mr Fawcett in
the brig. But the master tells me that you are a very reliable
navigator; you therefore ought not to have any difficulty upon that
score. And now you had better run away and turn yourself over to your
three-decker."

I dived down into the midshipmen's berth, and found my shipmate, Keene,
there also, although really he ought to have been on deck.

"Pass the word for San Domingo," said I to the sentry on duty outside.
And as the man duly passed the word, I turned to Keene and said:

"Now, then, young man, hurry up and get your kit ready as fast as you
please. You are to come with me in the _Francesca_."

"No!" exclaimed the youth with incredulous delight. "You don't really
mean it, do you, Grenvile? You're only having me on."

"Indeed I am not," answered I. "The skipper has just told me that I may
have you. He thinks that a little real hard work in a small vessel will
do you a lot of good, and there I fully agree with him," I added grimly.

"Oh, hard work be hanged!" exclaimed the lad joyously. "I'm not afraid
of hard work, as you very well know, Dick. And it will be simply
glorious to get away from the taut discipline of the _Shark_ for a
little while, to say nothing of the possibility of another such
adventure as your last. But a pirate won't have it all his own way this
time if he attempts to meddle with us, I can tell you, for the schooner
mounts eight long nines, and carries a long eighteen on her forecastle.
I say, Grenvile, can'