The Congo Rovers: A Story of the Slave Squadron

For a few moments I felt bewildered--stunned--by the awful suddenness of this frightful catastrophe; the piercing shrieks of despair, too, which continued to issue from the inte...

The attacking flotilla was composed of the launch, under Mr Smellie, with me for an _aide_; the first cutter, in charge of Mr Armitage, the third lieutenant; and the second cutt...

The ceremony of bidding us formal welcome having been duly performed to Don Manuel's satisfaction, he turned once more and called in stentorian tones for some invisible individu...

Giving the gig's crew strict injunctions not to leave their boat for a moment upon any consideration, but to hold themselves in readiness to shove off on the instant of our rejo...

What did it mean? Who were they, and what could they possibly want? I could see them clearly enough to distinguish that they wore the garments of civilisation; but they did not...

"Um!" ejaculated my father as he thoughtfully removed his double eye- glass from his nose with one hand, and with the other passed a letter to me across the breakfast-table--"Um...

On the following morning Captain Dubosc and Lieutenant Le Breton (we now discovered that the _Virginia's_ people had assumed the names of the officers of the _Vestale_ in additi...

About three bells in the forenoon watch next morning the look-out aloft reported a sail on the larboard bow; and, on being questioned in the usual manner, he shouted down to us...

I hurried on deck, highly gratified at the very handsome compliment paid me by the skipper, and found that the hands were aloft, casting loose the canvas. Presently, without a w...

By the time that we were finally ready to start it was about noon, and the heat had become intensely oppressive. The refreshing zephyrs of the morning had died completely away,...

In extreme disgust at the loss of the notorious _Black Venus_ Captain Vernon reluctantly gave orders for the resumption of the cruise, and the _Daphne_ was once more headed in f...

"Yes, sir, they is," answered Tom; "and a most fort'nate circumstance it were that you ordered them guns to be loaded when you did, otherwise we should have been sent sky-high b...

Consciousness at length began, slowly and with seeming reluctance, to return to me; and so exceedingly disagreeable was the process, that if I could have had my own way just the...

Meanwhile the Spaniards were still lying _perdu_ on board the hulk as they had remained from the moment of our driving them out the battery. During the discussion of our much-ne...

"Now," said Smellie as he turned once more to me, "we shall probably be again threatened on the reappearance of that bloodthirsty villain. But whatever you do, Hawkesley, mainta...

Of course in this matter of rest everything depended upon the behaviour of the foe. If from principle or superstition, or for any other reason, it was their invariable habit to...

Our skipper's instructions were to the effect that he was, in the first instance, to report himself to the governor of Sierra Leone; and it was to that port, therefore, that we...

I have not yet, however, stated what it was in connection with our encounter with the _Vestale_ which served to fan my fantastic suspicions into flame anew, and, I may add too a...

The people in the cabin, finding that no good result followed their violent pounding upon the inside of the companion doors, soon abandoned so unprofitable an amusement, and I w...

"Welcome back to the _Daphne_, gentlemen!" exclaimed Captain Vernon as he met us at the gangway and extended his hand, first to Smellie and then to me. "This is indeed a pleasan...

"Where are we going, Tom?" I asked, as the boatman, an old chum of mine, proceeded to step the boat's mast. "You surely don't need the sail for a run half-way across the harbour?"

On reaching home I found that my father had preceded me by a few minutes only, and was to be found in the surgery. Thither, accordingly, I hastened to give him an opportunity of...