“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.”