ed, she being a remarkably fast sailer while
the French cruisers were notoriously slow-coaches. This was a most
valuable piece of information for me to get hold of, and I carefully
laid it away in the storehouse of my memory for use when occasion should
serve.

On the following morning we began to ship our cargo of slaves--three
hundred and forty of them; and that same night, about an hour before
sunset, we weighed and stood out to sea, securing a good offing by means
of the land-breeze which sprang up later on, and finally bore away for
Cape Palmas. As it happened, the weather was light and fine, and our
progress was consequently slow, Cape Palmas not being sighted until our
sixth day out. Here Captain Duquesne secured an excellent departure by
means of three carefully taken bearings of the cape, observed at
intervals of two hours, by means of which he was able to establish our
position on the chart with the utmost accuracy; and, this done, we held
on a westerly course, the skipper's intention being not to haul up to
the northward until he had arrived at the meridian of 20 deg. west
longitude, lest he should fall in with any of the cruisers of the Slave
Squadron. But, as luck would have it, the weather fell still lighter at
sunset on our ninth day out; and on the following morning at daybreak we
found ourselves becalmed within three miles of a British cruiser, which
promptly lowered her boats and despatched them to overhaul us; and by
breakfast-time I had the pleasure of finding myself once more under the
British flag, our captor proving to be the corvette _Cleopatra_, by the
captain and officers of which I was most kindly received when I had
related to them my strange story. The prize was promptly provided with
a prize crew and sent into Sierra Leone in command of the third
lieutenant, and I was given a passage in her. Four days later we
arrived at our destination; and, to my great joy, among the vessels at
anchor in the harbour I recognised the _Eros_. I pointed her out to the
prize master; and he, good-hearted fellow that he was, kindly let me
have a boat to go on board her as soon as our own anchor was down.

CHAPTER TWENTY.

OUR CROWNING EXPLOIT.

"Come on board, sir," remarked I, touching my cap as I passed in through
the gangway of the _Eros_ and found myself face to face with Captain
Perry and the master, who were walking the quarter-deck side by side and
conversing earnestly, while the first lie