d it out and do not
want your help. Yours is rather a late repentance. Upon what terms do
you propose this?"

"On very easy terms for you, sir," replied the planter; "only that you
will let a broken man die in peace."

The captain looked at his visitor searchingly, and then turned to the
doctor.

"What is your opinion of this gentleman's state?" he said.

"Most serious," replied the doctor, after a very brief examination of
the visitor.

"Humph!" ejaculated the captain. "And I understand," he continued,
"that you are ready to give me every assistance I need to root out this
plague spot, as you term it?"

"Every help I can," replied the planter.

"Now that I do not need it, eh?"

"I beg your pardon, sir," said the planter; "you do need it. You have
made your way to my house and plantations without help."

"Yes; my officers soon made their way there," said the captain.

"And it will be easy to burn and destroy there; but you will not be able
to deal with the slave quarters in different parts of the island, nor
with the three well-equipped slaving schooners that voyage to and from
the West Coast of Africa and carry on their sickening trade with this
depot and the other stations."

"H'm!" ejaculated the captain. "Perhaps not; but I have no doubt that
we shall soon find out all I require."

The planter shook his head sadly.

"No, sir; the task will prove more difficult than you anticipate. Your
officer here has some little experience of one of your opponents."

"Oh! There is more than one to deal with, then?" said Mr Anderson
sharply.

"There are two, sir, who act as heads of the traffic--my overseer
Huggins, and his twin brother."

"Ah! I see," said the chief officer, smiling. "I am of opinion, then,
that we have met the brother yonder upon the West Coast."

"Most likely, sir," said the planter feebly. "If you have, you have
encountered another of the most cunning, scheming scoundrels that ever
walked the earth."

"And these are your friends that I understand you are ready to betray to
justice?" said the captain sternly.

"My friends, sir?" said the planter bitterly. "Say, my tyrants, sir--
the men who have taken advantage of my weakness to make me a loathsome
object in my own sight. Captain," cried the trembling man, "I must
speak as I do to make you fully realise my position. I am by birth an
English gentleman. My father was one of those who came out here like
many others to settle