Jack lost no time, and began to attack the rice with avidity, the two natives eyeing him closely and with the utmost gravity during the proceedings. The rice, being flavoured with a little curry-stuff and some pieces of chopped brinjal, was by no means unpalatable, and the middy left not one grain in the bowl "for manners." Indeed, he felt very much better for the meal. [Illustration: (Jack eating)] The short black attendant stalked out with the empty bowl, and almost at the same moment in stalked the Arab captain with an unmistakeable scowl upon his face. "If that chap isn't a slave-dealer, may I go back to the nursery and pinafores," muttered the mid of the maintop to himself; "and I'm in a jolly tight place if this is a slave-dhow, unless one of our cruisers should happen to fall foul of her." Feeling sure that this individual was the captain, and anxious to conciliate him--Jack was a born diplomat--our hero made the chief a neat little speech in English, expressing his thanks for past favours, and making a request that he might be landed at the nearest port. The captain shook his head vehemently, as if to intimate that the English tongue was utterly unknown to him. Then, turning to the sentry, he said in Arabic: "By the beard of the Prophet, a handsome youth! What thinkest thou that Christian dog, the English admiral, will pay for him, eh, Khyraz?" The sentry twirled his moustache thoughtfully. Then he said, with a hoarse, guttural laugh: "Perhaps the admiral will pay you in cannon-balls instead of gold, O Ahmed, my chief; it's a way the dogs have!" The captain scowled at this pleasantry. Then he observed tranquilly: "I think it will be sufficient gold to buy a hundred slaves with in the Zanzibar market. We shall do well on our next voyage if we have the good fortune to escape the men-of-war." Jack's heart rather sank when he found that the captain did not understand any English. How could he convey to him his wish to be landed at the nearest port? As our hero was turning over these thoughts in his mind, a member of the Arab crew came below, and reported that the yard had been sprung in the gale and needed repairs. Ahmed, after giving some rapid orders to the sentry, hurried away, and Jack was left to his own meditations, which were by no means pleasant ones. So badly was the dhow's yard injured that Ahmed decided to put into the Joo-joo river, where he could carry out the necessary repairs whilst his vessel lay securely at anchor. The dhow drew very little water, and safely entered the estuary only a few hours before the "Forte" appeared upon the scene.