s Stanhope. "But I did not like to
ask, fearing that such a request would be a transgression against
nautical etiquette."

"By no means," said Ned. "Captain Blyth is one of the most gallant of
men; he would never dream of opposing so very reasonable a desire on the
part of a lady--at least, not _now_, when no possible harm can come of
it. If you will take my place on this raised grating, I shall be
delighted to initiate you into the art. _This_ side, please--the
helmsman always stands on the weather side. That is right. Now grasp
this spoke with your left hand, and this with your right, so--that is
precisely the right attitude. Now, you feel a slight tremor in the
wheel, do you not? That indicates that the water is pressing gently
against the rudder--the ship carries a small weather-helm, as a well-
modelled and properly rigged ship should--and if you were to release the
wheel it would move a spoke or two to the right, and the ship would run
up into the wind. Now, at present we are steering `full and by,' which
means that we are to steer as near the wind as possible, and at the same
time to keep all the sails full. You see that small sail right at the
top of all on the mainmast? That is the main-skysail. It is braced a
shade less fore and aft than the other sails; so if you keep it full you
will be certain to also have all the rest of the canvas full. Now you
will observe an occasional gentle flapping movement of the weather leach
of that sail--the _edge_ of it, I mean. That indicates that the sail is
just full and no more; and you must keep your eye on that weather leach
and maintain just precisely that gentle flapping movement. If it
ceases, the sail is unnecessarily full, and you are not keeping a good
`luff,' and you must turn the wheel a shade to the right; if it
increases, you are sailing rather too near the wind, and must press the
wheel a trifle to the left. Do you understand me?"

"I think so," answered Sibylla, compressing her lips, grasping the
spokes tightly, and concentrating her whole attention upon the weather
leach of the skysail.

She proved an apt pupil; and though for the first ten minutes or so the
course of the ship was a trifle erratic, and steering in a straight line
proved to be not quite so simple and easy a matter as she had deemed it,
Miss Sibylla soon caught the knack, and at the end of half an hour the
_Flying Cloud_ was making as straight a wake again as though the best
h