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The man had become wholly evil, and he shrank away. "Steady, Peter," said the slaver. "Why shouldn't you rejoice with the happy lads on yon ship?
And it is a time for all to watch; especially, it is a time for Dagaeoga to watch with his eyes, his ears and all his senses." "I've that feeling myself." "Something is plotting against you. The slaver did not meet the spy for nothing." "Why should men bother about one as insignificant as I am, when the world is plunged into a great war?" "It is because Dagaeoga is in the way of somebody.
They had been captured during wars in their own country, and sold to Arabs, who brought them to the coast, and kept them half-starved until the slaver arrived, when they were shipped in dhows and brought off to the slaver, where, for nearly a week, whilst the bargains were in progress, they were kept entirely without food.
I was subject to dreadful ill treatment from the first mate of the ship, who, when I found she was a slaver, altogether declined to put me on shore.
"Strange that all men in peril on the uneasiness, like," said he, "should always gird themselves as tightly as they can." The slaver was now within musket shot, when he put his helm to port, with the view of passing under our stem. To prevent being raked, we had to luff up sharp in the wind, and fire a broadside.
Struggling, bathed in perspiration, we had worked ourselves into a passion; we were fighting with the river as with a living being, seeking to vanquish, wound, kill it. It strained us in its giant-like arms, and our poles in our hands became weapons which we thrust into its breast. It roared, flung its slaver into our faces, wriggled beneath our strokes.
The deep point of his opponent's sword had passed across his right cheek and the red drops fell on both shoulders. The two sailors looked at each other in dismay. The man paused for breath and he was a ghastly sight. "I told you more than once to beware, captain," said Robert, "but you would not heed me. Your temper has been spoiled by success, but in time nearly every slaver meets his punishment.
His words were babble, but the look in his eyes, the loose slaver of his lips, both scared and angered her, and as he pushed against her, clumsily trying to hook his arm about her waist, she struck him sharply with the full weight of her arm and shoulder, and he tottered and fell sprawling.
It was his intention to recover the men if possible, without bloodshed, and he would first make an attempt to board the slaver for such she was and alone try to achieve the men's liberation by pointing out to the captain that his ship would be captured and destroyed by the infuriated natives if he refused.
"Well, my men, any news of the slaver?" asked the lieutenant in an eager whisper, for the return of the canoe gave him hopes that a prize was at hand. "Ship live there," answered the elder black, in the clear and distinct tones in which his race can speak, but still only in a whisper.
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