“Oh, come, if you put it like that, squire, there’s no need to say any more. To be sure, yes, I’ll come aboard with you. I say; took many slavers?”
“No; not one.”
“That’s a pity. Always search well along the river mouths?”
“Yes.”
“Hah! They’re about too much for you. Now, if I was on that business, say I was on the lookout for these gentlemen, I shouldn’t do it here.”
“Where, then?” said the lieutenant eagerly.
“Well, I’ll tell you. As I said, they’re a bit too cunning for you. Of course you can sail up the rivers and blow the black chiefs’ huts to pieces. Them, I mean, who catch the niggers and sell ’em or swap ’em to the slave skippers; but that don’t do much good, for slavers slip off in the dark, and know the coast better than you do.”
“Yes. Well, what would you do?” said the lieutenant eagerly.
“Do? Why, I’d go across to the plantations, sir, and lay wait for them there. They wouldn’t be half so much on the lookout.”
“There’s a good deal in what you say, sir,” said the lieutenant thoughtfully. “But where would you watch—round Jamaica?”