wn, and there
was an answering light from behind them, proving that the one forward
must be at sea.

"It's a recall," said the lieutenant, with a sigh of relief; "give way,
my lads." Then to Mark: "The captain must be uneasy about us, or he
would never show that light. It's like letting the slaver know. Bah!
what an idiot I am. That's not our light. Pull, my lads, pull! That
must have been shown by the ship we are after."

As he spoke the light disappeared, and a fresh one appeared from astern.

They showed their own lantern, and their signal was answered, the second
cutter running up close to them a few minutes later, while the
lieutenant was boiling over with impatience, for he had been compelled
to check his own boat's way.

"What is it?" he said to his second in command.

"See that light ashore, sir?"

"No; I saw one out at sea; it's the slaver. Follow us at once."

"But that light was ashore, sir."

"Mr Ramsay, do you think I'm blind? Mr Howlett, are you there?"

"Yes, sir."

"Didn't you see a light off to sea?"

"No, sir; ashore."

"I tell you it was at sea, and it is the craft we are after. Now, my
lads, give way."

_Crash_.

"Why, we're among the trees again."

"Yes, sir; shore's this way," said the coxswain.

"Then where in the name of wonder is the sea?" said the lieutenant, in
an angry whisper, as the tide bore them along, with the men's oars
rattling among the mangrove stems.

"I think we've got into a side channel," said Mark.

"Rubbish! How could we?"

"Beg pardon, Mr Russell, sir," came from the boat astern; "we've got
into a sort of canal place with the tide running like a mill stream.
Hadn't we better lie to till daybreak?"

"Better sink ourselves," growled the lieutenant. "Here are we regularly
caught in a maze, and that schooner getting comfortably away to sea."

"'Fraid so, sir," said the boatswain. "That there was a light showed
ashore to warn 'em that we were in the river; some of 'em must have
heard."

The lieutenant made no answer, but ordered the men to back water, and
for the next four hours they were fighting the swift river, trying to
extricate themselves from the muddy system of branches into which they
had been carried in the darkness, but in vain; and at last, in despair,
they made fast to the mangroves, and waited for day.

Light came at last, piercing the white fog in which they lay; and in a
short time they were back in the wide river, close to