In the mean time Captain Bramble had found an opportunity that afternoon to see Maud, and to learn from her that Captain Ratlin almost always slept on board his ship, departing soon after dark for the spot through the jungle.  Satisfied of this, Capt.  Bramble once more proceeded to make his arrangements, for to have seized the vessel without her commander on board would have been to perform but half the business he had laid out for the night’s engagement.  But all seemed now propitious, and he awaited the darkness with impatience, when he might disembark a couple of boat loads of sailors and marines, and with the Quadroon for guide follow the path through the jungle to where the “Sea Witch” lay.

“Why do you muse so long and lonely, my child?” asked Mr. Huntington of her daughter that afternoon, as she came in and surprised her gazing out at a window vacantly.

“O, I hardly know, dear mother.  I was thinking over our strange fortune since we left Calcutta, the wreck, the nights in the boat, and our fortunate rescue.”

“Fortunate, my dear?  I don’t exactly know about that.  Here we have been confined at this slave factory, little better than the slaves themselves, these four weeks.”

“Well, mother, Captain Bramble says he shall sail soon, and then we can go round to Sierra Leone, and from thence take passage direct for England.”

“For my part I can’t understand why Capt.  Bramble insists upon staying here so long.  He don’t seem to be doing anything, and he came into the harbor by chance.”

“He says that business and duty, which he cannot explain, detain him here, but that he will soon leave, of which he will give us due notice.”

“Heaven hasten the period!” said the mother, impatiently; “for I am most heartily tired and worn out with the strange life we lead here.”

This conversation will explain to the reader in part, the reason why Mrs. Huntington and her daughter, English subjects and in distress upon the coast, had not at once gone on board the vessel of their sovereign which lay in the harbor, and been carried upon their destination.  From the outset Captain Bramble had resolved not to let his rival slip through his fingers by leaving port himself, and thus he had still remained to the present time, though without any definite plan of operation formed until he availed himself of Maud’s proposal.

“Why, bless me, my child, you look as though you had been crying,” said the mother, now, catching a glance at her daughter’s face.

“Do I, mother?” she answered, vacantly.

This was just after she had returned from the meeting with Captain Ratlin as already described, and whether, she had been crying or not, the reader will probably know what feelings moved her heart.

CHAPTER XII.

The conflict.