ight, and finally agreed to pay the
reward demanded. From that moment Hamed was installed on board.

As a fair breeze blew out of the harbour, Murray was in a hurry to be
off. The pilot, however, asserted that he could not venture to take out
the ship except during broad daylight. The _Opal_ had therefore to wait
till the next morning. The pilot accordingly took his departure,
promising to come off again at an early hour. Some time after sunset,
Adair and the master were walking the deck, discussing the plan of their
proposed boat excursion, to which the commander had agreed, when, as
they turned aft, they caught sight of the dark figure of a man who had
just climbed over the taffrail, and now stood quaking and shivering
before them.

"Where do you come from, my friend?" asked Jos; but the stranger did not
reply, except by an increased chattering of his teeth, though he put up
his hand in an attitude of supplication.

"Well, no one wishes to hurt you," said Green; "come forward and let us
see what you are like," and he called to the quartermaster to bring a
lantern. The stranger, gaining courage from the master's kind tone of
voice, followed him and Adair. He was evidently greatly exhausted.

"Bring a cup of hot coffee and some biscuit; it will restore the poor
wretch, and help him to tell us what he wants," said the master.

After taking the food and liquid, the negro speedily revived, and,
drawing his finger across his throat, with the addition of other signs,
he intimated that his master was about to kill him, when he made his
escape; and it was evident that he must have swum a distance of two
miles or more at the risk of his life, to put himself under the
protection of the British flag. His name, he intimated, was Pango; and
that his master, if he should recapture him, would carry him off and
kill him. Hamed, on being summoned, interrogated the black; and from
the account he gave, Adair and Green were convinced that they had
clearly understood Pango's pantomimic language.

The commander, who had not turned in, on coming on deck and hearing the
case, promised poor Pango that he should be protected; and to do so
effectually, at once entered him on the ship's books. The negro
expressed his gratitude by every means in his power, and, being taken
below by Ben Snatchblock the boatswain, was speedily, to his delight and
satisfaction, rigged out in seaman's duck trousers and shirt. He was,
notwithstanding,