ome
passing vessel to correct our reckoning, and I don't suppose we shall
come across many of these, for we're out of the track of all voyaging
over this part of the Atlantic save those homeward-bound from the Cape.
I intend to make for Flores, the westernmost island of the Azores, as
we're short of water; besides, by my pursuing that course we shall get
up into the trades, and bye and bye fetch the Gulf Stream, which will
render our passage shorter to the Channel."

"Very well, we'll see," said Mr Marline, unconsciously using his old
stereotyped form of answer to almost everything.

"I believe," cried Captain Miles laughing, "that if anybody asked you to
accept a thousand pounds you'd reply, `I'll see about it!'"

"You just try me and see," replied the first mate drily to this remark,
joining in the captain's laugh; but I noticed that the other did not
take up the offer.

Through our detention by the calm, in addition to the scurrying to and
fro we had during the hurricane and the long time we remained a helpless
log on the waters, it was now considerably more than two months since we
had left the West Indies; and, as the _Josephine_ did not sail so well
now, besides having light and variable winds, it took us more than
another fortnight to reach Flores and sight the Morro Grande--a mountain
some three thousand feet in height, rising high in the clouds above
Santa Cruz, the capital of the island.

But, for days before this, we sailed through that wonderful Sargasso
Sea, the circumstances of whose being Mr Marline had explained to me
during the fearful night we passed clinging to the capsized hull of the
ship, exposed to the cruel wash of the pitiless waves; and, as we
ploughed over this submerged meadow of sea-weed in the centre of the
Atlantic, I could not help recalling the mangrove swamps and lagoons of
the tropic island in which my childhood had been passed, wondering the
while, too, whether the _Josephine_ would not be reported as lost
through the protraction of her voyage--for she was expected to reach
England by the middle of September at the latest, and it was now
October.

Why, if news came to Grenada that we were given up at Lloyd's, poor dad
and mother would be in a terrible way about me, I knew!

The day of the receipt of such intelligence would be a sad one at Mount
Pleasant, where all had loved me and would miss me now more than ever.

These thoughts, however, were but idle fancies, I reflected w