ed my friend Ben. "The very first
day I shipped aboard the _Dolphin_ we took two Mtpe dhows close inshore
near Pemba. That brought me in a niceish bit of prize-money for a
start; and, just a week arter that exactly, when we had got down to our
proper cruising ground--that was, sir, just atween Zanzibar and the
Mozambique Channel, which, as I daresay you know, sir, is about two
hundred and fifty miles wide and runs between Madagascar and the
mainland of Africa--why, we came upon the biggest haul that had been
made on the coast for years; but we had to work for it, I tell you.
That was a chase and no mistake!"

"Was it?" I asked, glad of Ben's coming now to an actual yarn
concerning some of the stirring events of his life; for he had
previously only been "beating about the bush," so to speak.

"Yes, sir; and not only a chase that was something to boast of, but a
fight as well at the end of it--one of the smartest scrimmages I ever
had all the time I was out there. If you don't mind my lighting a pipe,
for I allers, sir, can tell a yarn better when I'm smoking, I'll just
haul my jaw-tackle aboard and give you a full account of the whole
adventure."

"Do," I said.

"There!" exclaimed he with a grunt of satisfaction, carefully filling a
briar-root pipe with some dark tobacco, which he produced from out of a
little round brass box that he carried in his waistcoat pocket, telling
me it was "the right sort," and proceeding to light it--"now, we can go
on serenely."

"Fire away!" said I, to encourage him, "I'm all attention."

He did not waste any more time; but at once began his story.

"The _Dolphin_ had run down south with the fag-end of the north-east
monsoon, economising her coals as much as possible, as all the men-of-
war have to do nowadays, worse luck--sometimes when it's a question
between saving a few pounds or sacrificing a ship! We had passed
Mazemba island, and had just weathered Cape Delgado, which is some ten
degrees south of the equator, when--it was close on sunset at the time,
and it grows dark all at once after that, you know, in the tropics--the
look-out man sang out, `sail-ho!' This was just as we were piped down
to tea. Bless you, we didn't think no more of going below, I can tell
you!"

"I suppose not," I put in, to show I was listening attentively to what
he was saying, for he paused at this juncture, as if waiting for me to
say something.

"No, sir. Of course, although we were runnin