"See it? I should think I did! Now what in the name of fortune is she skulking behind that point for?" "Why, for all we know, she may be a slave-ship," said the coxswain, with much suppressed excitement in his tones. "Out oars, lads, and we'll soon see what larks that chap is up to." The middy, in a state of great excitement, turned his telescope upon the stranger. [Illustration: _Over the dhow's bulwarks appeared a row of fierce bearded faces._] "She's a dhow right enough," he said briefly; "but the commander warned me not to interfere with the natives." "That's right enough, sir, that is," returned the coxswain; "but this is another pair of shoes altogether. A dhow is a dhow, and ain't nothing to do with shore-going loafers." As it was now a stark calm, recourse was had to the oars, and the cutter slipped along through the water, which was so clear that the fish were visible swimming about in all directions. "If yonder craft _should_ prove to be a slaver, we ain't got no weapons aboard to fight the swabs with," observed one of the cutter's crew. "The stretchers will serve our turn, I reckon, chum," said the coxswain grimly, "and there's a shovel or two. We must be careful what we do, though, for this hooker may prove to be a lawful trader, and in that case we can't touch her." The cutter, urged on by her willing crew, soon doubled the point, and found herself in the mouth of the river. The dhow lay quietly at anchor, and it appeared as if her crew had not as yet caught sight of the man-of-war's boat. She looked a small vessel, and boasted of only one very raking mast and a lofty tapering yard. Over her clumsy stern floated a blood-red flag attached to a bamboo flagstaff. "Give way, men; we'll soon be alongside her," cried the middy, in sharp, decisive tones. "To my mind she has the look of a regular slaver." Shouts of alarm now rang out from on board the stranger, and her Arab crew were seen hurriedly rushing hither and thither like a horde of disturbed ants. "There's a big crew aboard; that's suspicious," murmured the coxswain to himself. "How I wish we had poor Mr. Villiers here! 'Tis just the job he liked to have a hand in, the plucky youngster"--and something very like a tear stood in the seaman's eye as his thoughts reverted for a moment to the sad events of the preceding day. The crew of the dhow were now seen mustering in the waist of their vessel. As the cutter drew near, the coxswain, who knew a few words of Arabic, rose in the stern-sheets and shouted out that he was going to board for the purpose of examining the dhow's papers. The only answer to this was two or three jets of flame which gushed out from over the vessel's taffrail. Some slugs whizzed over the British seamen's heads and splashed harmlessly into the water beyond them.