he huge structure which bore them. As soon as she
was fairly past the word _Agincourt_ flashed from her stern in golden
letters so large that they could be easily read without the aid of a
telescope.

Captain Staunton glanced, with an amused twinkle in his eye, at his
over-confident passenger, as much as to say, "What do you think of
that?"

Brook looked just a trifle confused for a moment; then his brow cleared,
and he replied to the captain's look by remarking in his usual easy
confident tone--

"Oh, ah, yes; it's all right. She's been altered, and had her name
changed; I remember reading about it somewhere."

"Good heavens!" exclaimed the skipper _sotto voce_ to the chief mate who
was standing next him; "why, before the voyage is over the man will be
telling us that the _Galatea_ is her own longboat lengthened and raised
upon."

At 7:30 p.m. the hands were mustered, when the chief and second officers
proceeded to pick the watches. Bob, to his great satisfaction, found
himself included in the chief officer's watch, with Ralph Neville for a
companion. They were told off, with two able and two ordinary seamen,
for duty on the mizzen-mast; the two lads being also required to keep
the time and strike the bell, in spells of two hours each.

By seven bells in the first watch (11:30 p.m.) the _Galatea_ was off the
North Foreland, with a nice little breeze blowing from E.N.E.

All hands were then called, the canvas was loosed and set, the tow-rope
cast off by the tug and hauled inboard, and the voyage, which was to
prove of so eventful a character to those entering upon it, may be said
to have fairly commenced. The ship was soon under every stitch of sail
that would draw, gliding down through the Downs at the rate of about
seven knots, and the passengers, most of whom had remained on deck to
witness the operation of making sail, then retired to their several
berths, where, the night being fine and the water smooth, it is
reasonable to suppose they enjoyed a good night's rest.

CHAPTER FOUR.

THE OUTWARD VOYAGE.

By eight o'clock next morning--at which hour the passengers sat down to
breakfast--the _Galatea_ was off Dungeness, which she rounded with a
somewhat freshening breeze, and noon saw her fairly abreast of Beachy
Head. The weather was magnificent; the breeze, whilst fresh enough to
waft the good ship through the water at the rate of an honest ten knots
in the hour, was not sufficiently strong to r