es, sir, but--"

"Yes, sir, but!" said the captain, in an angry whisper. "Is this a time
for raising buts? According to your own showing, the schooner was to be
found at anchor in one of the bends where the black chief's town lay."

"Yes, sir, but I see no sign of any thatched huts."

"All in good time, Mr Anderson. We shall see the lugger swing round
that next point directly, and then we shall be in full view of our
prize."

The captain turned from his chief officer impatiently, and then in a low
tone issued a few orders with respect to future proceedings, the master
following out the instructions, while the two boarding parties, each
armed and ready, stood waiting for the command which should launch them
on board the now invisible slaver.

"Bah!" ejaculated the captain. "We are half-an-hour too late. We ought
to be alongside now. Hang the fellow, Mr Anderson! Can he be taking
us the right way round that point?"

"I hope so, sir, but I have my suspicions," replied the lieutenant
anxiously.

"What, that he is playing us false?"

"No, sir, but that he has lost heart and is afraid to pilot us right to
where the schooner lies."

"The scoundrel! If he has--" began the captain, sharing now in his
subordinate's anxiety. "Oh, impossible! He must know better than we
do. Ahoy, there!" he cried, speaking just loud enough for the lookout
to hear. "Can you make out where the lugger is making for?"

"Ay, ay, sir! Bit of a creek yonder, right inshore."

"That's it, sir," cried the lieutenant excitedly; "he has taken fright.
We must run round that bend yonder, keeping to mid-stream."

"Or anchor," exclaimed the captain sharply. "Why, confound it, man!
The river forks here, and we are in a branch with a current running in
another direction. Stand by there to lower the anchor!" he roared, "or
we shall be ashore."

The order came too late, for as in obedience to order after order, the
sloop's course was altered and her sails began to shiver, there was a
preliminary shock as if bottom had been lightly touched, then a shiver
which seemed to communicate itself upward from the deck through Murray's
spine, and the next minute the _Seafowl_ heeled over slightly as she
seemed to cut her way onward into the soft mud, where she stuck fast
with the fierce current into which they had run pressing hardly against
her side as it raced swiftly by.

"Trapped!" said a voice from close to Murray's ear, and the young man
tu