“Hark ye, friend,” interrupted the other, indulging in a short, low laugh; “from your outfit and appearance I think I am right in calling you a seaman:  Do you imagine that glasses were forgotten in the inventory of this ship? or, do you fancy that we don’t know how to use them?”

“You must have strong reasons for looking so deeply into the movements of strangers on the land.”

“Hum!  Perhaps we expect our cargo from the country.  But I suppose you have not come so far in the dark to look at our manifest.  You would see the Captain?”

“Do I not see him?”

“Where?” demanded the other, with a start that manifested he stood in a salutary awe of his superior.

“In yourself.”

“I!  I have not got so high in the books, though my time may come yet, some fair day.  Hark ye, friend; you passed under the stern of yonder ship, which has been hauling into the stream, in coming out to us?”

“Certainly; she lies, as you see, directly in my course.”

“A wholesome-looking craft that! and one well found, I warrant you.  She is quite ready to be off they tell me.”

“It would so seem:  her sails are bent, and she floats like a ship that is full.”

“Of what?” abruptly demanded the other.

“Of articles mentioned in her manifest, no doubt.  But you seem light yourself:  if you are to load at this port, it will be some days before you put to sea.”

“Hum!  I don’t think we shall be long after our neighbour,” the other remarked, a little drily.  Then, as if he might have said too much, he added hastily, “We slavers carry little else, you know, than our shackles and a few extra tierces of rice; the rest of our ballast is made up of these guns, and the stuff to put into them.”

“And is it usual for ships in the trade to carry so heavy an armament?”

“Perhaps it is, perhaps not.  To own the truth, there is not much law on the coast, and the strong arm often does as much as the right.  Our owners, therefore, I believe, think it quite as well there should be no lack of guns and ammunition on board.”

“They should also give you people to work them.”

“They have forgotten that part of their wisdom, certainly.”

His words were nearly drowned by the same gruff voice that had brought-to the skiff of Wilder, which sent another hoarse summons across the water, rolling out sounds that were intended to say,—­

“Boat, ahoy!”

The answer was quick, short, and nautical; but it was rendered in a low and cautious tone.  The individual, with whom Wilder had been holding such equivocating parlance, seemed embarrassed by the sudden interruption, and a little at a loss to know how to conduct himself.  He had already made a motion towards leading his visiter to the cabin, when the sounds of oars were heard clattering in a boat along side of the ship, announcing that he was too late.  Bidding the other remain where he was, he sprang to the gangway, in order to receive those who had just arrived.