o the ship, having seen nothing more of
the Arabs, who thought it prudent to keep at a distance from the hated
Feringhees.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN.

SIX MONTHS PASS AWAY--THE GAUNTLET GOES IN SEARCH OF THE ROMP--JACK
STANDS BY HER--"BREAKERS AHEAD"--ANXIOUS SUSPENSE--PROBABLE FATE OF THE
ROMP--JACK PROCEEDS TO ZANZIBAR--SEARCH FOR ADAIR--DESMOND AND HAMED
CAPTURED BY ARABS--ADAIR AND HIS COMPANIONS RESCUED--OPAL AND GAUNTLET
AT THE CAPE--A BALL ON SHORE--JACK MEETS AN OLD FRIEND--FALLS IN LOVE--
RETURN TO ENGLAND--PROSPECT OF WAR WITH RUSSIA--MASSACRE OF SINOPE--THE
THREE COMMANDERS APPOINTED TO SHIPS.

Six months had passed away, and Jack Rogers had disposed of the
liberated blacks, and had since been the means of setting many others
free, though unhappily also the innocent cause of sending not a few to
destruction, who might have otherwise drawn out a weary existence in
abject slavery. Often had he to console himself with the reflection
that their death truly lay at the door of the accursed slave-dealing
Arabs. "It is the only way of putting down slavery that I can see,
though a rough one," said Jack to himself, "till English missionaries
and English merchants take possession of the country, and we can drive
the Arabs and Portuguese out of it, and induce the natives themselves to
rise and aid us in the glorious work; however, I shall not see those
days, I fear; and in the meantime we must do what we can to catch the
villains at sea."

The _Gauntlet_ was slowly proceeding southward when she fell in with the
commodore. Jack, going on board to receive orders, was directed to look
out for the _Opal_ and _Romp_, which were to proceed to Zanzibar, and
thence to the Cape of Good Hope. "That means that they are to be sent
home, I suspect," observed Jack to Higson, when he returned on board;
"the commodore ought to be going there too--he looks very ill; and the
ship's company have suffered much from sickness."

"I hope that we shall soon follow," observed Higson; "this slave-hunting
is all very well in its way, but it's a style of work one might get
easily tired of." Jack agreed with him; but as the ship had not yet
been her full time on the station, there was every probability of her
having to remain some months longer.

She had proceeded some way down the coast, when she fell in with one of
the _Opal's_ boats, of which Jos Green had the command. He had captured
one full slaver, but said that the ship had taken non