beggar
drown, even if he is a nigger."

Mark uttered a groan. He had come to save a human being--a
fellow-creature cast to destruction by the brutal captain of the
slaver--and he had failed.

"Got him?" came faintly from the distant ship.

"No, sir," shouted the second lieutenant, through his hands.

"Oh, look! look!" cried Mark, wildly. "Pull, my lads. Starboard men,
back water. He must be somewhere here. He is sure to come up again."

The men obeyed, and in those terrible moments the silence was appalling.
Then came the deafening roar of a gun--the last fired then at the now
distant schooner--and Mark sank down from the thwart and was turning
away from the men to hide his drawn face, when he uttered a wild cry,
flung himself half over the side of the boat, and made a desperate
clutch at something which just rose above the water. Then hand grasped
hand, the white holding the black in a desperate clutch, as the
lieutenant dropped the rudder-lines, and saved Mark from going overboard
by seizing him round the waist.

Then came a little hauling, followed by a cheer, as the nude figure of a
stalwart black was dragged in, to sink helpless, perfectly insensible,
in the bottom of the boat.

"Now pull, my lads!" shouted the lieutenant; "pull all you know, and
let's get aboard. We've got to take that schooner before we've done."

The men cheered, and pulled for the ship, from which came an answering
cheer; but as Mark knelt down by the black he felt they had been a
little too late, for the man lay there, in the moonlight, apparently
quite dead. He had not stirred, neither did there seem to be the
slightest pulsation as the boat was pulled alongside the _Nautilus_ and
run up to the davits, the graceful vessel beginning to glide once more
rapidly in pursuit of the schooner, which had by the cruel manoeuvre
placed a considerable distance between her and her pursuer.

"The black-hearted scoundrel!" cried the captain, as he stood looking
down at the slave. "I'll follow him to America but what I'll have him.
Well, doctor, all over with the poor fellow?"

"Oh no," said the gentleman addressed; "he's coming round."

Almost as he spoke there was a faint quiver of the black's eyelid, and a
few minutes after he was staring wildly round at the white faces about
him. The men set up a cheer, while a feeling of exultation such as he
had never before experienced caused a strange thrill in the midshipman's
breast.

"He m