buy the rifles. I shan't get them new, one can pick up guns just as good
at half the price, and as I know something about rifles I am not likely to
be taken in. Of course I have got my pistols and only have a brace to buy
for you. You will have time on the voyage to practise with them; if you
did not do that you would be as likely to shoot me as a hostile Indian."

"Oh, that is bosh!" the boy said; "still, I certainly should like to be a
good shot."

After getting the rifles and pistols, Harry went into the city and ordered
six dozen of wine and three dozen of brandy to be sent on board out of
bond; he also ordered a bag of twenty pounds of raw coffee, a chest of
tea, and a couple of dozen bottles of pickles and sauces, to be sent down
to the docks on the day before the _Para_ sailed. Another suit of
seafaring clothes and a stock of underclothing was ordered for Bertie.
Harry spent the intervening time before the vessel sailed in looking up
his friends and saying good-bye to them, and drove down to the docks at
the appointed time, his brother having joined the ship on the previous
day.

The _Para_ was a barque-rigged ship of some eight hundred tons. At present
she did not show to advantage, her deck being littered with stores of all
kinds that had come on board late. The deck planks where they could be
seen were almost black, the sails had been partly loosed from the gaskets,
and to an eye accustomed to the neatness and order of a man-of-war her
appearance was by no means favourable; but her sides shone with fresh
paint, and, looking at her lines from the wharf, Harry thought she would
be both fast and a good sea-boat. She was not heavily laden, and stood
boldly up in the water. Nodding to Bertie, who was working hard among the
men, he went up on to the poop, from which Captain Peters was shouting