upon a plantation. In the past, as you know,
ideas were lax upon the question of slavery, and I inherited those
ideas; but I can answer for my father, that his great idea was to lead a
patriarchal life surrounded by his slaves, who in their way were well
treated and happy."

"As slaves?" said Mr Anderson sternly.

"I will _not_ enter into that, sir," said the planter sadly, "and I
grant that the custom became a terrible abuse--a curse which has exacted
its punishments. I own fully that I have been a weak man who has
allowed himself to be outwitted by a couple of scheming scoundrels, who
led me on and on till they had involved me in debt and hopelessly so.
In short, of late years my soul has not seemed to be my own, and by
degrees I awoke to the fact that I was nominally the head of a horrible
traffic, and the stalking-horse behind whose cover these twin brothers
carried on their vile schemes, growing rich as merchant princes and
establishing at my cost this--what shall I call it?--emporium of flesh
and blood--this home of horror."

"Do I understand you to say that in this island there is a kind of
centre of the slave-trade?"

"In this island and those near at hand, sir," said the planter. "In
addition there are depots on the mainland which the slavers visit at
regular intervals, and from which the plantations are supplied."

"And you are ready to give information such as will enable me to root
out a great deal of this and to capture the vessels which carry on the
vile trade?"

"I can and will do all this, sir," replied the planter feebly. "I
thought I had explained as much."

"Yes, yes," cried the captain impatiently, "but I want to know more
about the bargain you wish to make."

"What can I say more, sir?" replied the planter. "Your protection, so
that I may die in peace, trying to make some amends for the past."

"H'm!" ejaculated the captain thoughtfully.

The planter smiled.

"You are thinking, sir," he said, "that you cannot trust me, and that
you will be able to root out this accursed trade without my help."

"Perhaps so," said the captain drily.

"Let me tell you, then, that you are setting yourself to cleanse an
Augean stable. You are pitting yourself against men who have made these
swampy forests, these nets of intertwining water-ways, a perfect maze of
strongholds in which your little force of sailors would be involved in a
desperate fight with Nature at her worst. Your officers and men