t's
it. They've caught sight of one of our boats coming up, and, bravo! we
shall take the scoundrels, as I expected, between two fires."

The lieutenant sprang to his feet and clapped his hand to his sword, for
a clean white lug sail came fully into sight. But he thrust his sword
back into its sheath before dropping into his seat, for Tom May growled
out in his siren-like voice--

"Second cutter, sir, and yon's Mr Munday, sir, in the starn sheets."

"Then where's the slaver's lugger?" cried the first lieutenant, and a
voice from the man-o'-war boat which was coming up stream under oars and
a couple of lug sails shouted--

"_Seafowls_ ahoy!"

"Bah!" cried Mr Anderson. "Then we must have passed some branch of the
river; and I'm sure we kept a sharp lookout. How stupidly blind!"

"Perhaps Mr Munday's lads passed a branch, sir," cried Murray eagerly.

"Thank you, Mr Murray," said the lieutenant, clapping the lad on the
shoulder. "I hope you're right, for I could never have forgiven myself
if we had been met by this fresh misfortune."

CHAPTER THIRTY.

BETTER LUCK NEXT TIME.

"Why, where have you been?" cried the second lieutenant, as the two
boats ran alongside. "The captain's been nearly mad with excitement and
anxiety."

"Oh, don't ask me," cried Mr Anderson. "But tell me this, has the
stream forked anywhere as you came up?"

"Yes, once: about a mile lower down; but the river was very shallow and
insignificant, and I did not think it was worth while to explore there.
But why?"

"Shallow--insignificant!" said the lieutenant bitterly. "It was big and
important enough to float a large lugger--the one we are pursuing."

"The one that we saw at the mouth of the river when we entered the bay?
I was wondering where that had gone as we came up."

"No doubt the same," replied Mr Anderson. "Well, you've let the enemy
slip, Munday."

"Nonsense! You don't mean that, man?"

"There's no mistake," said the lieutenant; "and it means this, that you
will have to share the captain's anger and disappointment over my
failure."

"I? But why?"

"For not catching the gang of scoundrels I was driving down before me.
Oh, Munday, you ought to have taken that boat!"

"But how was I to know, man?"

"Don't stop to talk. Run on back and find the lugger if you can, while
I keep on down the main stream. We may overtake the wretches after all,
and if either of us sees the enemy in the offing of course we must