not say. Some grave suspicions crossed
Jack's mind.

"There she is though. Starboard a little," he sang out, "or we shall
run into a tub with a light in it."

"Oh, the scoundrels!" broke from many lips. Jack was about to douse the
light, but Hemming told him to let it burn on. "It will serve as a
beacon to us, and the felucca's people will not know whether or not we
have been deceived by it," he observed.

It now became a question in which direction the slaver had gone. On
they pulled, therefore, once more towards the frigate. Hemming wished
to let Captain Lascelles know what had occurred, that he might thus
steer a course on which he was most likely to come up with the slaver.
With the increasing wind the boat would have little chance of overtaking
the felucca, but by staying where they were the lieutenant hoped that
they might possibly cut her off. The blue-lights and the flashes of the
guns had dazzled their eyes, and the night seemed darker than ever. In
vain Jack peered for some time into the darkness to make out the
frigate. A thick bank of mist, blown off the land, lay upon the water.
Suddenly, like a dark phantom stalking over the deep, the frigate's
hull, with her tall masts towering up into the sky, appeared, and he had
barely time to shout out, "Port the helm, pull round the port oars,"
before the boat was close under her bows, very narrowly escaping being
run down. In another minute they were on the quarter-deck, and Hemming
was reporting to Captain Lascelles all that had occurred. He suggested,
that while the frigate stood after the felucca in one direction, he
should be allowed to cruise in an opposite direction, to double the
chances of falling in with her. All he wanted was a further supply of
water, fuel, and provisions. To this the captain consented, and the
boat being furnished with what was required, Hemming and the two
midshipmen again shoved off from the frigate's side. Jack had of course
his faithful rifle with him, and he felt pretty certain that, should he
once get a sight of the enemy, he should be able to use it with good
effect. "I have not the slightest compunction about picking off those
slaving scoundrels," he observed, as he was busily employed in loading
his piece. "They seem to be completely lost to all sense of what is
right and just, such perfectly abandoned sinners, that there can be no
hope of their reforming, so I only feel as if I was destroying a wild
beast to