r to be piped away, with one of
the lieutenants in charge; while nothing would suit him also but to have
his own gig manned. He said he mistrusted the slaver and would board
her also himself, as she had a number of Arab rascals on her deck who
would probably show fight.

"The boats were soon in the water, under our lee, the men shinning down
into them by the falls, each chap with his cutlass tucked into his
waistband; and, in another moment, rounding under the stem of the
_Dolphin_, and getting nearly swamped as we breasted the sea, we made
for the dhow, that now lay about half a cable's-length from our vessel,
which had drifted a bit astern.

"`Put your backs into the stroke!' sang out Captain Wilson from his
gig--for I was in the cutter; and with grim earnestness we stretched out
as hard as we could, gripping the water firmly and then pulling with all
our strength. It was hard work against such a sea as was then running
and in the face of the wind, which was still rising and more gusty than
before; but we were soon alongside the chase, both the boats boarding
her of course to leeward, although the captain in his gig dashed at the
high poop astern, while we in the cutter made for her bows, which lay
lower in the water and would thus enable us to get more easily on board.

"Captain Wilson was right in his suspicions about the Arab skipper's
surrender. Although he had waved that red rag of his to make-believe
that he had given in, so that we might not give him a broadside as he
probably expected--for of course he didn't know that we would not fire
the big guns for fear of killing the poor slaves in the hold--no sooner
had we got alongside than the beggars showed fight.

"I and another chap managed to grab hold of the bowsprit gear to haul
ourselves up by into the fo'c'sle of the dhow, when chop came a cut that
severed the ropes we had clutched, causing us to let go and drop back
again into the bottom of the cutter with a thump that nearly knocked the
bottom out of her, while another Arab shoved out the muzzle of a long
matchlock right amongst us and fired it off so closely that the charge
singed my whiskers. That did one good job, however, for it made us
pretty angry, as you might imagine, and the whole cutter's crew tumbled
aboard in a way that astonished them, I can tell you. They fought
pluckily though, but they were more like mad cats than men, screaming
and tearing us with their nails when we had knocked the