f what had seemed to
those on board the sloop to be a patch of dense tropical forest, and
then sailed away as if to reach the open sea, paying not the slightest
heed to the repeated summonses which she received from the _Seafowl_.

More stringent commands in the shape of shot would have followed, but
for the fact that the second cutter, which had been despatched up the
river in search of Mr Anderson's expedition, suddenly, to the surprise
of all on board, glided out of the same patch of forest as the lugger
had appeared from some little time before, and upon catching sight of
the sails of the craft they had followed, had continued the pursuit as
rapidly as the crew could force their boat along.

"The place is a regular maze, Mr Anderson," said the captain, as he
described all that had taken place, "and the scoundrel who commands the
lugger--I'll hang him to the yard-arm, Mr Anderson, whether he's a
Yankee or English born, and the bigwigs of the United States and in
Parliament at home may settle among themselves whether I've done right
or not, for he has got the wrong man to deal with if he thinks he is
going to play with me. He played with me, Mr Anderson, and tricked me
into the belief that he had surrendered, so that I should not fire upon
him, and manoeuvred his lugger so as to keep Mr Munday with the second
cutter between us. Bah! I'll never forgive Mr Munday for letting
himself be so out-manoeuvred. He has been as bad as you have, sir."

"I'm very sorry, sir," said the first lieutenant meekly.

"And so you ought to be, sir! But, as I was telling you, the scoundrel
led the second cutter a pretty dance, Munday following him till from the
deck here it seemed that all he had to do was to tell his coxswain to
put his boat-hook on board the lugger and bring his prisoners alongside
here."

"Well, sir, and he did not?" asked the chief officer.

"No, sir, he did not!" cried the captain angrily; and then he stopped
short for a few moments. "Well," he continued then, "aren't you going
to ask why he didn't take the lugger a prize?"

"I was not going to interrupt you, sir, but I should be glad to hear."

"Very good, then, Mr Anderson, I will tell you. It was because the
scoundrel played a regular pantomime trick upon us--yes, sir, a regular
pantomime trick. Look yonder," continued the captain, pointing towards
the shore. "What can you see there?"

"The edge of the forest that comes down to the bay nearly all r