xclaimed.

"Dick!" was the answer. "Can it be you?" and my brother and I grasped
each other's hands. He had grown into a tall young man, and certainly I
should not have recognised him by his figure. I was also greatly
altered; besides he would not have recognised me in my present
condition--my countenance pale, my dress begrimed with dirt, torn, and
travel-stained. I introduced Harry and Tubbs to him, and he shook hands
with them both. There was no time for talking. He told us that the
frigate had lighted the slaver, which had refused to heave to, and had
had the audacity to fire at his Majesty's ship. A gale coming on, as
the only means of securing her, the frigate had run the slaver on board,
when he with a lieutenant and eight men had leapt down on her deck,
expecting to be followed by more of the crew, but, before they had time
to spring on board, the ships parted. The slaver's crew, as he called
them, had made a desperate resistance, but a considerable number having
been killed and more badly wounded, the survivors had been driven
forward and yielded. "Having ceased to resist, the slaver's crew," he
said, "had promised to assist in shortening sail, and apparently in good
faith, having yielded up their arms, set about doing so. We have now
got under snug canvas. There is too heavy a sea running to allow of a
boat with more hands being sent to our assistance. However, as we have
complete mastery of the people, we can do very well without them. Mr
Hallton, the second lieutenant of the `Rover,' our frigate, was
inquiring for the captain of this craft, when he was told that he must
either have been killed or fallen overboard, but one of his crew
suggested that he might have gone below. Another then owned that he had
heard the captain say, that sooner than fall into the hands of an enemy,
he would blow the ship up. On hearing this, Mr Hallton sent me down
below to search for him."

"You would have been too late had we not providentially prevented him
from executing his mad scheme," I observed; and I then told him how we
had discovered the captain in the very act of attempting to blow up the
ship. "But you mistake the character of this craft," I said; and I
briefly told him how she had captured the "Arrow," and how we had been
treated since we fell into Captain Roderick's hands.

"That greatly alters the aspect of affairs," he observed, looking grave.
"If you will come on deck with me, we will inform Mr