The schooner was going almost due south, and she was making great speed.

The slaver's boast that she could run away from anything too strong for her was probably true, and Robert judged also that she carried plenty of arms besides the eighteen-pounder.

Most of the crew seemed to him to be foreigners, that is, they were chiefly of the races around the Mediterranean.

Dark of complexion, short and broad, some of them wore earrings, and, without exception, they carried dirks and now and then both pistols and dirks in their belts.

He sought among them for the face of one who might be a friend, but found none.