of shifting his canvas, for which,
as the ship was now running dead before the wind, he could not have a
better opportunity. It was a heavy task, and all hands were set to work
upon it, the steerage passengers--ay, and some of the gentlemen in the
saloon also--so far identifying their own interests with that of the
ship as to volunteer their services in the pulling and hauling part of
the work, which enabled the skipper to send two strong gangs aloft. But
it was all of no use--just then, at least. The fact was that the older
suit of canvas was not nearly so unserviceable as Captain Spence chose
to consider it, and the substitution of the new suit was therefore
without appreciable effect--the result being that when night closed down
upon the little comedy the people on board the _Southern Cross_ had the
mortification of seeing the rival ship hovering on the very verge of the
horizon ahead of them.

On board the _Flying Cloud_, on the other hand, apart from her commander
there was no very great amount of enthusiasm. The passengers were
merely placidly satisfied at having outsailed a notoriously fast vessel;
whilst the mates and crew were, or affected to be, supremely indifferent
to the circumstance. Captain Blyth, however, made ample amends in his
own person for the indifference of everybody else. He was simply
exultant. Whatever might happen in the future, nothing could rob him of
the right to boast that he had beaten the _Southern Cross_ in a fair
trial of sailing, with the two ships side by side. And with regard to
the future, also, he was tolerably sanguine. It had been conclusively
demonstrated that the _Flying Cloud_ was the faster ship of the two
before the wind and in ordinary trades weather, which weather he could
now depend upon until he reached the region of the calms about the line;
and it was also possible that, walking away from the _Southern Cross_ at
his present rate, he might get a slant across the calm belt which the
other ship would miss, and a consequent start from thence into the
south-east trades of nobody could say how many days. And if the worst
came to the worst and he were overtaken in the calm belt, the two ships
would at least make a fair start of it again from the line, when he was
not without hopes that the extraordinary weatherliness of his own ship
would enable him to keep the advantage already won. So that, looking at
the matter in all its bearings, he was not only fully satisfie