sort at hand; I felt that I would not
have cared what might be its nationality, I would have found means to
board the craft, conveying the news of that wretched slaver's
whereabouts, and afterwards assisting, if possible, in her capture.

I remained snugly ensconced in my hiding-place until the clearing up and
washing down of the decks informed me that work was over on board the
schooner for that day, and then set out cautiously to return to the
house. I managed to effect a retreat into the cover of the bush without
betraying myself; and then, moved by a quite uncontrollable impulse,
bent my steps once more in the direction of the hill-top, from which I
had that morning effected my reconnaissance--though it took me
considerably out of my way--determined to have just one more look round
before settling myself for the evening.

It was about four o'clock p.m. by the position of the sun when I once
more stood beneath the overshadowing foliage of the tree which I had
used as an observatory; and ten minutes later I found myself among its
topmost branches. The atmosphere was luckily still quite clear, a fresh
breeze from the eastward having prevailed during the whole of that day;
but a purplish haze was gathering on the western horizon, and my heart
leapt into my mouth--to make use of a well-worn figure of speech--when,
standing out in clear relief against this soft purple-grey background, I
saw, far away in the south-western board, the gleaming white sails of a
ship stretching in toward the land _under easy canvas_.

It was this latter fact, of the ship being under easy canvas, which so
greatly gratified me. A slaver or an ordinary trader would have been
pressing in under every stitch that would draw--as indeed would a man-
o'-war if she were upon some definite errand--but _only_ a man-o'-war
would approach the land in that leisurely manner with evening close at
hand. The stranger was a long distance off--perhaps as much as twenty
miles--and it was, of course, impossible to see more than that she _was_
a ship of some sort; but I had by that time acquired experience enough
to know, from the tiny white speck which gleamed up against the haze,
that she was coming in under topsails only. What would I not have given
just then to have held my trusty telescope in my hand once more just for
an hour or _so_!

Suddenly I remembered having one day seen a very fine instrument
belonging to Don Manuel in his own especial den. It w