talk fast now and point forward.

"Wounds must be slight," cried the lieutenant. "Can you make out a word
of what he says, Vandean?"

"No, sir; but let me try."

Mark pointed forward, and without a moment's hesitation the two black
sailors plunged into the darkness and returned, half dragging, half
carrying a ghastly-looking object into the square of light shed from
above.

"Oh, here's the wounded man, then," cried the lieutenant. "Let's get
him up into the daylight."

Mark pointed down at the slave, who was bleeding freely, and the big
sailor now spoke out a few words fiercely, with the result that half a
dozen nude slaves came shrinkingly forward, and in obedience to a
gesture, lifted the wounded man and carried him up to the deck.

The officers and men followed, and the two black sailors came last, to
pay no heed to the wounded man, but proceed at once to refill the
buckets, and carry them down into the hold past the guard set over the
hatchway. Then after bidding Bob Howlett to hoist a signal for the
surgeon to come aboard, Mr Russell roughly bandaged the terrible wound
the slave had upon his head, the others who had carried up the sufferer
looking stupidly on, blinking and troubled by the sunlight, to which
they had evidently been strangers for some time.

"Now," said Mr Russell, as he rose, "we are in the dark as much as
ever. Can't you explain what was wrong, Mr Vandean?"

"No, sir; I saw a struggle, and one man seemed wounded."

"And it was someone else. Tut--tut--tut! and we can't understand a
word. What a useful thing speech is, after all."

Just then the two blacks came up for more water, and Mark tried to
communicate with them, but only with the result that they looked puzzled
till the midshipman pointed to the wounded man.

"How did it happen?" he said; and the big black looked at him heavily.
Then he seemed to grasp the meaning of the question, and laughed
excitedly.

Pointing to the wounded man lying on the deck, he ran to the group of
slaves standing staring at him, with their foreheads wrinkled up and
their eyes full of despair; he seized one, whose countenance assumed a
stern look of anger as the black sailor pointed to him, and made the
sign of striking a blow, pointing again at the wounded man.

"He evidently means that the man was wounded by his fellow-slave," said
Mr Russell.

The black sailor watched the officer, and then thrust his hand behind
the slave to take a short, fl