"The rascally crew of a dhow probably," answered Rhymer. "How the villains must have laughed at us when they saw our boat sailing away."

A further search in no way cleared up the mystery, and all they could do was to light a fire and cook some provisions, which had fortunately been kept on board the boat. On the return of daylight they found the marks of numerous naked feet on the sand; but whether of blacks or Arabs they were unable to determine, though Charley suspected that they were those of a party of blacks who had come across from the mainland.

This loss made it still more important for them to get back to the ship.

As soon as they had taken a hurried breakfast, Rhymer ordered all hands on board, and once more they made sail to the northward.

The old mate, as may be supposed, was in an especial ill-humour, which he vented on poor Charley, who required comforting for the loss of his friend. For three days he had to endure all the abuse heaped on him, but he bore it without complaint, resolving not again, if he could help it, to take a long cruise with Rhymer. At length a sail was seen ahead, standing towards them. As she drew nearer--

"That's her, that's the old ship!" cried Morgan, who was on the look-out.

d.i.c.k was right, and in another hour the ship hove to and the boat got alongside. Rhymer's downcast countenance showed that he had unsatisfactory intelligence to communicate. The commander listened to his report, but made no remark; he then desired to hear Charley's account.

"We can't let the poor boy be lost without a further effort to recover him!" observed Captain Curtis.

He sent for Mr Hanson, and they held a consultation. The result was that the commander determined, having already picked up the other boats, to proceed to the mouth of the river and to send them in to inquire from the first Arabs they could meet with what had become of the missing midshipman and to insist on his liberation.

There was a chance also of their capturing a dhow laden with the slaves which had been landed. The ship came off the mouth of the river at night, and the boats were got ready to go in over the bar as soon as there was light sufficient to see their way, by which time also the flood would have made. Mr Hanson begged to have charge of the expedition, as he felt an especial interest in the recovery of Ned. The boats pulled up at a rapid rate, and soon reached the spot where the encounter had taken place. Charley, who had accompanied Mr Hanson, kept a look-out along the bank, half expecting to see a signal made by Ned. No one appeared, and if there were any inhabitants, they kept out of sight. The boats pulled up the river for ten miles or more, till Mr Hanson's, which was leading, grounded. No trace of the missing midshipman was discovered, and, much disappointed, the expedition returned to the ship.

The weather proving fine, the "Ione" remained at anchor. Every day a boat was sent in ready to receive the midshipman should he appear, but returned with the same unsatisfactory report.

The commander, considering that everything possible had been done to recover the midshipman, then ordered the ship to be got under weigh, and she stood for Zanzibar, where he hoped, by other means, to be more successful, although the general opinion on board was that poor Garth had been killed, and that nothing more would be heard of him.

CHAPTER EIGHT.

The "Ione" had been upwards of three years on the station, and of late the sick list had been greatly increased, still the commander persevered in his efforts to capture slavers; but the Arabs, grown cautious, managed to avoid him, and for some time not a single dhow had been taken.

One morning, as the ship lay becalmed on the shining ocean, with the sun's rays beaming down as from a furnace on the heads of the crew, the smoke of a steamer was seen coming from the southward. She rapidly approached, and coming nearer, made her number. She was a man-of-war.

Had she came out to relieve the "Ione"? Every eye on board watched her eagerly. Stopping her way a boat was lowered; her commander came on board. No sooner were the contents of the despatch he brought known than cheers rose from fore and aft, joined in by the poor fellows in their hammocks. The "Ione" was to return home immediately. Before long a breeze sprang up, the two ships parted, and the corvette, under all sail, steered for the Cape.

"The only thing I regret is going home without nearing of young Garth,"

observed the commander, as he walked the deck with his first lieutenant; "I would have given much to find him, but I fear that when he fell into their hands, the rascally Arabs killed him."

"I am inclined to your notion, sir," answered Mr Hanson; "but I still have a lingering hope that by some means or other he may have escaped, although, as, notwithstanding all our inquiries and the rewards offered, no tidings of him had reached Zanzibar when we left the island, it is, I confess, very faint indeed."

Charley Meadows was the only person in the midshipmen's berth who would not abandon all expectation of again seeing his friend, and who would very gladly have remained another year on the station with the chance of hearing of Ned. He dreaded also the melancholy duty which might fall to his lot of informing Lieutenant Pack and Miss Sarah and sweet Mary of Ned's fate.

As the ship drew near England he thought over and over again of what he should say; no one had written, as the commander had been unwilling to alarm the boy's friends while any uncertainty existed. They would, therefore, on seeing the announcement in the papers of the "Ione's"

return, be looking out eagerly for him. The corvette had a rapid pa.s.sage, and on reaching Portsmouth was at once paid off. Charley Meadows had written to his father, who was still commander of the coast-guard station at Longview, giving an account of what had occurred, and begging him to break the intelligence to Lieutenant Pack. As soon as he was at liberty he hurried home. One of the first questions he put on his arrival was, "Have you told them, father, about poor Ned?"

"No; for I only received your letter yesterday, and have been unable to get over and see our friends. It will be sad news to them. Whenever I have called on Pack and his sister, their nephew was always the subject of their conversation."

Charley thus found that, after all, he must be the first to carry the sad intelligence to his friends. He, however, possessed the most valuable description of courage; he was morally, as well as physically, brave. The duty had to be performed, and he resolved to do it forthwith. As his father could not go, he set out by himself. Now and then he stopped to consider what he should say, and then hurried on, wishing to say it at once. Just before he reached Triton Cottage, he saw Mr Pack coming along the road; the old lieutenant stopped and looked at Charley as he approached, putting out his hand.

"Glad to welcome you, my lad. I saw that the 'Ione' had arrived and was to be paid off, so was looking out for you; but where is Ned? I thought you would have come down together."

Now came the moment Charley had dreaded.

"I will tell you how it happened, sir, directly, but Ned is not with us.

I don't believe he is lost, and no one saw him dead; but the Arabs got hold of him, and he has not since turned up."

"What! hasn't he come home with you?" exclaimed the lieutenant. "You don't mean to say that our Ned is dead?"

"No, sir; but he's lost, and we don't know what has become of him," and Charley then gave a full account of all that had occurred.

The old lieutenant listened attentively. "Poor Sally! poor Mary!" he murmured, as, leaning on Charley's shoulder, he walked back to the house. "It will well-nigh break their hearts to hear that he is dead, but I for one won't believe it; I tell you, Meadows, I can't believe it," his voice growing more husky as he spoke. "I expect to see Ned a commander before I die; he is sure to get on in the service. Sally won't believe it either; she's got too much good sense for that. Come along, however, you shall tell her and Mary about it, for I have not taken in all the particulars."

The lieutenant stumped on, but Charley felt the hand which rested on his shoulder press more and more heavily. They together entered the parlour, where Miss Sarah and Mary were seated.

"Ned, Ned!" cried Miss Sally, mistaking him for her nephew; but she quickly saw her mistake, while Mary knew him at once.

"Where is Ned?" they both inquired, after they had shaken hands, Mary looking up into his face with an inquiring glance.

"He hasn't come home with us," said Charley, "and Mr Pack will tell you what I have told him."

The lieutenant was glad of this opportunity to give his own version of the story, for he was afraid Charley would alarm his sister and Mary.

"You see Ned's not come home in the 'Ione,' and that's a disappointment, I'll own. That he is all right I have no doubt, somewhere out in Africa among some Arabs who got hold of him while performing his duty--you may be sure Ned would be always doing that--and he hasn't yet been able to make his way down to the coast, or at all events to get on board an English ship. He'll do so by-and-by though. You two must not fret about him in the meantime. I know what Ned's made of; he has a fine const.i.tution, and is not likely to succ.u.mb to the climate; and as to the Arabs, except in the matter of slavery, they are not a bad set of fellows."

Thus the lieutenant ran on, until Miss Sarah, turning to Charley, asked him to give a more particular account. This he did, omitting no circ.u.mstance which might support the idea that Ned had escaped.

Miss Sarah every now and then interrupted him with an e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.i.o.n or a question, but poor Mary sat looking very pale and anxious, with her eyes fixed upon his countenance all the time and not uttering a word. Tom Baraka had seen Charley arrive with the lieutenant, and guessing that he had belonged to the "Ione," and had brought news of Ned, waited outside, hoping to learn from him why Ned had not come home. At length, however, unable to endure the suspense, he took the privilege of a favoured servant and came into the room.

"You come from de 'Ione,' ma.s.sa?" he said, looking at Charley. "Pray tell me why Ma.s.sa Ned not come back. Hab him gone in nudder ship?"

Charley, who remembered Tom, briefly told him the particulars of Ned's disappearance.

"Den I go an' look for him!" exclaimed Tom. "He go search for my boy, what I do better dan go look for him?"

"O do, do!" cried Mary, springing up. "I would go too if I could be of any use."

"You do not know the character of the country, Miss Mary," said Charley; "but if Tom would go, if he escapes being caught by the Arabs, he would have a better chance of finding him than any one else. How to get there would be the difficulty, unless he could obtain a pa.s.sage on board a man-of-war going out to the coast."

"Yes, yes, I go!" cried Tom; "I find a way, nebber fear."

"We must think the matter over, and consider what can be done," said the lieutenant. "Ask your father, Charley, to come here and give me the benefit of his advice, and I will write to Hanson, they'll have his address at the Admiralty, and he will come down here and tell us what he thinks best, or I'll go up to London myself and see their lordships.

They would not wish a promising young officer to be lost without taking all possible steps for his recovery."

Charley's spirits rose as he found his friends even more sanguine than himself as to the finding of Ned. They talked on and on without any material alteration in their proposed plan. The lieutenant said that he would write to Mr Farrance, as in duty bound, to tell him of Ned's disappearance, and to ask his advice. "He has the means of helping us, and judging from the generous way in which he has acted towards Ned, I feel sure that we can rely on him," he observed.

Charley went back with a message to his father, who came over that evening, and the subject was again discussed in all its bearings, indeed the old lieutenant could think and talk of nothing else. He had, in the meantime, despatched his letters to Mr Farrance and the late first lieutenant of the "Ione," and determined, by the advice of Mr Meadows, to take no steps until he heard from them.

The next day Charley again came over, and greatly interested Mary and her aunt by the account he gave of their adventures in the Indian Ocean.

He inspired Mary with a strong wish to see the horrible traffic in slaves put an end to.

"If I had a fortune I would devote it to that object," she exclaimed enthusiastically. "What sufferings the poor little children have to endure; and then the agony of their parents as they are dragged off from their homes to die on their way to the sea, or on board those horrible dhows, or to be carried into slavery, which must be worse than death."

Her remarks had greater influence on Charley than even the miserable state of the slaves on board the dhows had produced. "I will do all I can to try and get back to the coast as soon as possible, or if an expedition is formed to go up the country to look for Ned I'll get my father to allow me to join it; I am pretty well seasoned to the climate by this time--never had an hour's illness while I was away."