m back
again.

"I know the rascally slavers' trick," he exclaimed; "they have been
telling the poor wretches that we are going to murder them; and if they
once had gained the deck, we should have had no little difficulty in
preventing them from murdering us."

Then looking down the hold on the heaving mass of black humanity, he
cried out, "Hear me, you piratical rascals; if you don't make those poor
negro fellows understand that we are their friends, and have come to set
them free, we'll hang every one of you at your own yard-arms before ten
minutes." He knew that many of the crew understood English perfectly,
indeed that some of them were English and Americans.

The pirates, finding that their plot was defeated, wisely came on deck,
having explained to the slaves that no harm was going to happen to them.
As they came up they were secured by the manacles which they had
prepared for their unhappy captives. Some time was thus employed, and
at length a breeze sprang up, and the frigate was seen bearing down upon
them. The prisoners looked very blank when they found that they were to
be transferred to her. The gallantry of every one engaged was warmly
commended by Captain Lascelles. Hemming got the command of the prize,
and to their great delight Jack and Terence were allowed to remain in
her. The frigate and her prize then made sail together for Sierra
Leone. They kept close in with the land in the hopes of picking up
another prize. Before, however, they got round Cape Palmas they met
with a strong westerly gale, which compelled them to bring up in a
sheltered bay, which is to be found some way to the eastward of it. The
scenery was not very interesting. Near them was a narrow neck of sand,
with a few palm-trees on it, and a muddy lagoon on the other side.
Still, men who have been long aboard are glad to find anything like firm
ground on which to stretch their legs. Now the surgeon and the
lieutenant of marines were constantly joking each other as to which of
them possessed the greatest physical powers. If one boasted he had
ridden fifty miles without stopping, the other had always gone ten miles
farther. If one had leaped over a wide ditch, the other had leaped over
one five feet wider, or if one said he had kept up a Scotch reel for an
hour, the other had danced one for a quarter of an hour longer.

"I'll tell you what, doctor," explained Lieutenant Stokes; "I'll
undertake to race you for a mile, each of