88 THE AFRICAN TRADER,

Night soon came down upon us as we thus sat
utterly helpless in our boat, while the sea around
was lighted up with the flames of the burning
vessel. Loaded as she was almost entirely with
combustible materials, they burned with unusual
fierceness. Her whole interior, as the sides were
burned away, appeared one glowing mass, sur-
rounded by a rim of flames which fed upon her
stout timbers and planking. Suddenly there came
a loud hissing noise across the water, then a dense
vapour ascended from her midst, and in an instant
after all was darkness. The remains of the ‘ Chief-
tain’ had sunk into, the depths of ocean.

‘T am afraid our chance of being picked up by
the schooner is gone,’ I observed to Paul. ‘ She
very probably, when the breeze comes, will stand
away from us.’

‘There is no such thing as chance, Massa
Harry,’ he answered. ‘If it is God’s will she come,
if not, He find some other way to save us. Let
us pray that He do what He judge best.’

Thereon Paul, without waiting for my reply,
knelt down in the bottom of the boat and lifted up
his voice in prayer to our merciful Father in heaven, _
for that protection which we more than ever felt we —