Chapter 12

"A justice of the peace, for the time being,
They bow to, but may turn him out next year;
They reverence their priest, but, disagreeing
In price or creed, dismiss him without fear;
They have a natural talent for foreseeing
And knowing all things;--and should Park appear
From his long tour in Africa, to show
The Niger's source, they'd meet him with--We know."

HALLECK.

Raoul was not mistaken as to the manner in which they were obtained and
the means employed by his enemies. The frigate had found one of the
feluccas loaded with naval stores, including some ten or fifteen barrels
of tar; and it instantly struck Griffin, who was burning to revenge the
defeat of the morning, that the prize might be converted into a
fire-vessel. As the second lieutenant volunteered to carry her in,
always a desperate service, Cuffe gave his consent. Nothing could have
been better managed than the whole duty connected with this exploit,
including the manner in which our hero saved his vessel from
destruction. The frigate kept between her prize and the lugger, to
conceal the fact that a boat remained on board the former, and when all
was ready the felucca was apparently permitted to proceed on her voyage.
The other two prizes were allowed to go free also, as cloaks to the
whole affair. Griffin, as has been seen, kept standing in for the land;
his object being to get up stream from the lugger and as near her as
possible. When he found himself almost as far ahead as was desirable,
drags were used to keep the craft stationary, and in this manner she
drifted down on her intended victim, as has been already described. But
for the sagacity and uneasiness of Ithuel the plan would altogether have
escaped detection; and but for the coolness, courage, and resources of
Raoul, it would infallibly have succeeded, notwithstanding the
suspicions that had been excited.

Cuffe and the people on deck watched the whole affair with the deepest
interest. They were barely able to see the sails of the felucca by means
of a night-glass as she was dropping down on the lugger; and Yelverton
had just exclaimed that the two vessels were foul of each other, when
the flames broke out. As a matter of course, at that distance both craft
seemed on fire; and when le Feu-Follet had dropped a hundred yards
nearer to the frigate, leaving the felucca blazing, the two were so
exactly in a line as to bring them together as seen from the former's
decks. The English expected every moment to hear the explosion of the
lugger's magazine; but, as it did not happen, they came to the
conclusion it had been drowned. As for Griffin, he pulled in-shore, both
to avoid the fire of le Feu-Follet, in passing her broadside, and in the
hope of