r, as I told you," said the lieutenant.

"Let me see, Mr Anderson, did you tell me that?"

"Yes, sir, if you will recall it."

"Humph! Yes, I suppose you did. But I was thinking. Suppose he plays
us false."

"Why should he, sir?"

"To be sure, why should he, Mr Anderson? All the same, we must be
careful."

Meanwhile, Murray was being cross-examined by his brother midshipman,
who looked out of temper, and expressed himself sourly upon coming
aboard.

"You have all the luck," he said. "You drop into all the spirited
adventures, while I am packed off with prosy old Munday."

"Oh, nonsense! It is all chance. But didn't you see anything, old
chap?"

"Yes--muddy water; dingy mangroves; the tail of a croc as the filthy
reptile slid off the tree roots into the water. That was all, while
there I was cooking in the heat, and listening to old Munday prose,
prose, prose, till I dropped off to sleep, when the disagreeable beggar
woke me up, to bully me about neglecting my duty, and told me that I
should never _get to_ be a smart officer if I took so little interest in
my profession that I could not keep awake when out on duty."

"Well, it did seem hard, Dick, when he sent you off to sleep. I
couldn't have kept awake, I know."

"I'm sure you couldn't. But there: bother! You couldn't help getting
all the luck."

"No; and you are going to share it now."

"Not so sure, Frank. As like as not the skipper will send me away in a
boat to watch some hole where the slaver might slip out. So this Yankee
is going to act as pilot and lead us up the river to where the schooner
is hiding?"

"Yes, and to show us the chief's town, and the place where he collects
the poor unfortunate blacks ready for being shipped away to the Spanish
plantations."

"My word, it's fine!" cried Roberts excitedly. "And hooroar, as Tom May
has it. Why, the lads will be half mad with delight."

"And enough to make them," said Murray. "But I say, how does it strike
you?"

"As being glorious. Franky, old fellow, if it wasn't for the look of
the thing I could chuck up my cap and break out into a hornpipe. Dance
it without music."

"To the delight of the men, and make Anderson or Munday say that it was
not like the conduct of an officer and a gentleman."

"Yes, that's the worst of it. But though of course we're men now--"

"Midshipmen," said Murray drily.

"Don't sneer, old chap! And don't interrupt when I'm talking."

"Say on