u see an albatross does off the
Cape of Good Hope when it has taken its first dart downwards after its
prey, and has then to pursue it over the sea, the large sheets of the
triangular sails of the dhow standing out on either side of her low dark
keel in the same way as the pinions of the albatross touch the water in
its flight.

"Mr Shrapnel was told to fire another gun; but it had no greater effect
than the first one, and our skipper hardly seemed to know what to do;
for the dhow was now heading more towards the land, and the _Dolphin_
would soon be in shoal water, as there are lots of reefs about them
parts. It would never do, either, to fire right into her, although we
were well within range now, as we might probably damage some of the poor
slaves aboard, who were no doubt packed as tightly as herrings in a
barrel; and yet, it was growing dark, the sun being just on the point of
setting over the highlands of the great African continent on our
starboard hand. If we didn't do something pretty soon Mr Arab dhow
would be able to cry, `Walker!' and laugh at us for the wild-goose chase
he had led us!"

"You must have been pretty anxious as the moments flew by, the sun
setting, and the darkness creeping up, without your being able to
overhaul her?" I said.

"We were all that," replied Ben, knocking the ashes out of his pipe
viciously as if he were giving the slave captain a rap on the
head;--"and as we stood grouped around the deck amidships close by the
engine-room hatch, fixing on our cutlasses and getting ready for the
scrimmage, should luck enable us to have one, I don't know what we said
we wouldn't do to the impudent beggars when we got aboard!

"The land was looming well on our beam, some six miles distant, and
those breakers visible between us and it. The situation was a `tight'
one, if there ever was such, for it looked uncommon like as if the
captain of the dhow intended running ashore and risking her breaking to
pieces on the rocks, if he couldn't find an opening in the coast into
some lagoon where he could with his light draught beach the craft in
safety. He was evidently determined to escape us, run what risk he
might!

"I was standing alongside our skipper on the bridge; and I could see
that he, too, was bound not to be licked, for he had screwed up his
mouth in a way that he had when he had made up his mind to something,
and then the admiral himself wouldn't have turned him from it!--He was a
bold