re I sha'n't be sorry to have a fair mouthful to-day," said Mr
Marline with a melancholy smile. "I haven't known what a good square
meal was since the gale began, and think I could do justice to one now."

"So could I," replied the captain; and he went below to give Harry the
steward some especial orders on the subject, the result being that the
last pair of fowls occupying the nearly tenantless hen-coops were
removed screaming to the cook's galley, to reappear an hour afterwards
on the cabin table at the first regular dinner we were able to sit down
to together for four days. The ship, although racing on still before
the gale, was now riding more easily and rolling less, while no heavy
seas came dashing aft from the forecastle to wash us all up in a heap
pell-mell into the stern-sheets, as had hitherto been the case at meal-
times--a moving mass of legs and arms, crockery-ware, savoury dishes,
and table furniture in general!

When I again went on deck, the ship was going beautifully, tearing
through the water like a racehorse and parting the waves on either side
of her bows as if she were veritably ploughing the deep, the crests of
the sea rising in foam over the fore-yard and floating in the air in the
shape of spindrift and spray far astern.

The sky, too, had somewhat lost its leaden hue, clearing towards the
zenith, where one or two odd stars could be seen occasionally peeping
down at us through the storm rack that flew overhead like scraps of
fleecy wool. This cheery prospect told us to be of good courage,
leading us to hope that if we only waited patiently we might expect fine
weather bye and bye.

At nine o'clock, the greater portion of the heavens was quite
unobscured, the moon shining out, although looking pale and watery and
with a big burr round her that showed the still unsettled condition of
the atmosphere; the wind, strange to say, continuing to blow with almost
as great force from the north-west as when it began, nearly forty-eight
hours before.

"I'm afraid we're going to have a nasty night of it," said Captain
Miles, who had just then come up from below with his sextant. "Still,
I'm glad to see our old friend the moon again, however greasy she may
look. I haven't been able to take an observation since Monday; so we'll
see what a lunar may do in the way of fixing our position."

Just then, there was a break in the haze that had caused the watery
appearance of the fair orb of night; and Captai