efore been on
the port quarter, over to starboard, brought her head somewhat to the
north of west, and hauled in the sheet. Lying over till the water nearly
touched her gunwale, the light little craft would have gone speedily
along had it not been for the drag of the boat astern. This, however,
towed lightly, for she was loaded with but a very small proportion of
the weight she would carry. Godfrey judged, by the objects on the shore,
that they could not be going along less than three miles an hour. In six
hours the land trended away due south, and he knew that they had now
reached the first of the two deep bays they would have to pass before
reaching the northern extremity of the Cape. He kept on his course, and
an hour later, with the exception of the low coast nearly astern, no
land was to be seen. Luka, who was paddling steadily, looked round. He
had such implicit confidence in his companion that he was quite sure the
boat was keeping the right course, but he had a vague sense of
uneasiness at seeing nothing but sea around him.

"How do you know which way to go?" he asked.

"I know that by keeping on the same way we were going past the last
land, we shall strike the coast again on the other side of this bay. I
think it is twenty or thirty miles across. I can tell the way by the
wind in the first place, and in the second place by the position of the
sun. You see it is over my right shoulder at present; there is the mark
of my shadow on the side. I have got to keep it about there, making some
allowance for the change in the position of the sun."

Luka understood this. "But suppose the wind was to change?" he said.

"I should know it by the position of the sun. You see at present it
comes nearly due south, and is blowing almost straight towards the sun;
but if it were very cloudy, or at night when I could not see the sun, I
should not be able to tell. Then after holding on till I felt sure that
we were well past the mouth of this bay, I should put her about on the
other tack, and should be sure to come upon the land sooner or later.
Anyhow, even in the darkest night we should know if the wind had gone
round to the north, as it would be so much colder. Besides, there is
never a great shift of wind like that without knowing it; the one wind
is sure to drop, and there would be something like a dead calm before
the other set in. Anyhow, with a bright sun and a steady wind like this
we cannot go wrong, and you will see l