me
distance ahead of the whaler, which had just before come to an anchor.

The spot where we found ourselves was about the wildest I had ever seen:
dark rocks rose out of the sea fringing the shore, and rugged mountains
towered up to the sky in all directions; while not a sign of human life
was visible. As we swept the coast with our glasses, we discovered,
almost abreast of the ship, a deep indentation which looked like the
mouth of a gulf or estuary. This we naturally felt anxious to explore,
and we hoped to have leave to do so the next day.

Soon after we had furled sails, the commander directed Peter Mudge to
take the jolly-boat and board the whaler, with a message to the master
requesting any newspapers of a late date which he might possess. "Yes,
you may go, Rayner," he said to me. "And, Mr Mudge, take him a leg of
mutton my steward will put into the boat, and some oranges we brought
from Rio." We had killed a sheep the previous day.

We were soon on board the whaler. The master, a middle-aged,
grave-looking man, in a long-tailed coat and broad-brimmed hat, not much
like a sailor in outward appearance, received us very civilly, and was
grateful for the present, as his wife, he said, was in delicate health,
and to her it would be especially welcome. He invited us into the cabin
where she was seated. She was a nice, pleasant-looking woman, though it
struck me that her countenance bore a peculiarly melancholy expression.
He at once handed us a bundle of English papers, published long after we
had left home, and which were very welcome.

"You'll stop and take supper with us, gentlemen. I hope," he said; "it
will be on the table immediately. I don't know, however, that I can
offer you better fare than you'll get on board your own ship."

Mudge assured him that he did not care about that, and was happy to
accept his invitation.

While we remained in the cabin, our men were entertained by the crew.

We had just taken our seats, when the door of a side cabin opened, and a
young lady stepped out, looking more like a fairy, or an angel, or some
celestial being, than a mortal damsel. So I thought at the time. Mudge
and I rose and bowed; she returned our salutation with a smile and a
slight bend of her neck. The master did not introduce us, nor did he
say anything to let us know who she was. I, of course, thought that she
was the captain's daughter; but she did not address Mrs Hudson as
mother, and from s