had accelerated his departure in order to have time to go to
Tristan d'Acunha on his outward trip, instead of calling there as he
usually did just before returning to Providence--so as to allow the
brothers to pick up a little information that might be of use to them
from the little colony at Tristan, before proceeding to their own
selected settlement on Inaccessible Island.

The ship was now, therefore, quite ready to start as soon as the wind
and her captain willed it; for, her sails were bent, with the gaskets
cast-off and the topsails loose, ready to be let fall and sheeted home
at the word of command. A nautical man would have noticed, too, that
she was hove short, right over her anchor, so that no time should be
lost in bowsing that up to the cathead and getting under weigh, when the
time came to man the windlass and heave up the cable, with a "Yo-heave
ho!"

Presently, Fritz observed a boat that had been towing astern of the ship
hauled up alongside, and then this put off for the shore, with some one
in the stern-sheets whom he did not recognise at first, on account of
the person having a gilt-banded cap on; but, as soon as the boat got
nearer, he saw that it was Eric, who now hailed him while yet a hundred
yards away.

"Hullo!" he shouted; "how is it you're so late? The captain is only
waiting for you to set sail, for the pilot's coming on board now!"

"I didn't think you were going until the evening," replied Fritz,
descending the steps of the jetty, which the boat had now nearly
approached.

"Nor were we, if this breeze hadn't sprung up since morning so very
suddenly, when we least expected it! I suppose it's because of all that
gunpowder firing that the air's got stirred up a bit? But, jump in, old
fellow, the skipper seems a bit impatient; and the sooner we're all on
board the better he'll be pleased."

With these words, Eric stretched out a hand to help his brother into the
little dinghy, which could barely carry two comfortably besides the man
pulling amid-ship, and then the frail little craft started on her way
back to the mother ship, of which she seemed the chicken!

No sooner were they alongside and up the ladder, than Captain Brown's
voice was heard rapidly giving orders, as if no time were to be lost.

"Veer thet boat astern an' hook on the falls," he roared in stentorian
accents. "I want her walked up to the davits 'fore I can say Jack
Robinson! There, thet's the way to do it, men.