While the trader, Mr. Gull, and Hicks were ashore, there was no chance whatever of communicating any of my suspicions concerning Martin and Shannon. Just what these rascals intended to do was certainly a matter of doubt, and, after all, the talk had been so characteristic of the Scot that I feared I was taking it too seriously to give it a thought.

We tramped over the loose sand to the factory, a couple of miles inland, and the heat of the marsh was awful. Hicks, who had hardly recovered from the accident of the morning, had difficulty in keeping up, for his head was still giddy from the effects of the blow he had received upon it. The black fellows, who had sighted our barque before daylight, had thought nothing of a run to the beach, and they went ahead at a great rate along the jungle path, caring neither for briars, spines, or any of the various prickling things that make even a well-shod man hesitate before treading on them. They 265were a tall and powerful set of men, all armed with old flint-lock muskets of ancient pattern; doubtless some of them had been used in the first war between the States and England. We finally arrived and were ready for business. The compound, or slave corral, was an immense enclosure completely out of sight from the beach, and away from the prying eyes of any cruiser that might be prowling along the coast. Felado Cortelli, the half-breed Italian slaver, whose presence had cursed the West African coast for years, was in charge, and he came forth to meet us. Our lack of arms seemed to give him amusement, but when he heard how we had been rolled over in the surf, he laughed loudly.

Within two hours from the time we left the surf, our arrangements had been made, and we were leading between two and three hundred blacks to the beach, where payment was to be made, and they were to be shipped aboard, Cortelli’s own guard of coast pirates making the escort for the unfortunates.

Our boat came alongside with its first load of human freight. Hicks and Curtis stood at the quarter-rail watching the creatures, and for the first time in many days seemed on speaking terms. They appeared to comment upon a girl who was crying and sobbing bitterly, and who was shackled to a huge buck, who sat stolidly gazing out to sea.

266The oily swell rocked the boat but little; the barque, however, rolled lazily like a huge log, swinging her long spars slowly from side to side, and the momentum of each swing hove her down until her channels brought up with a smacking jar upon the surface.

This made it necessary for the boatman to use some caution, for, if the small boat’s gunwale caught anywhere upon the vessel’s side while she was on her downward swing, it would instantly be forced under and the craft upset.

Cortelli stood at the break of the poop, talking to the trader, and, as the girl was told to make ready for a spring aboard, he looked over the side and grinned. The poor creature was frightened and shrank back, delaying the unloading.

“Stir her up,” said the Guinea to one of his bullies.

A black pirate laid the lash, and she screamed.

“Hold on there!” cried Hicks, leaning over the side. “If you do that again, I’ll pistol you.”

His face was flushed, and his hand sought his broad leather belt, where hung his cutlass and long-barrelled pistol belonging to the barque’s supply.

“Sho, man, what’s the matter?” asked Yankee Dan, and the Guinea scowled savagely.

“Dis gal free,” said the big buck, standing up, as he heard the conversation. “He no right to take 267her--nor me. I Begna Sam, no slave. Lib right ashore till you come. Den he cotch us both, an’ say we slave ’cause long sailor, Shannon, he say he buy us.”

Cortelli grinned. It was not the first time he had practised this trick, and, if the blacks had no friends strong enough to protest, they invariably went with the rest of the cargo.

“Where are the girl’s people?” asked Hicks.

“What difference does it make?” asked Yankee Dan. “I see no difference whether they’re ashore here or back in the timber, do you?”

Mr. Curtis nodded encouragingly. It was evident he had no scruples how or where the girl had been kidnapped.

The Guinea, Cortelli, shrugged his fat shoulders, and shot a venomous look at the Englishman.

“Shall I find out where each black resides when at home?” he asked, sarcastically. Then he turned away.

Hicks, instead of following him, leaned over the rail. A strange look of sadness came into his eyes. He was a hard men among hard men, and he had revolted at the squeal of a black woman. I watched him a moment, and looked to see something more happen.

He evidently saw that to send the girl ashore meant to doom her to Cortelli’s will. There was 268only one way, and, as she stepped on deck with the big buck, Sam, he went to him and asked about the girl’s people. She was being separated from her old mother and crippled sister, neither of whom were of any value as slaves. Begna Sam was hustled below with the rest, and Hicks went back on the poop.

“Bring her mother and sister aboard,” said he to Cortelli. “I’ll give you full price for both.”

The little fat scoundrel glanced at him quickly to see if he were in earnest. H............