that the lady soon found herself in possession of an ample if
somewhat showy wardrobe, to her infinite comfort and contentment.

During the whole of this time, it may be remarked, not a single sail of
any description had been sighted; although Leslie, keenly anxious to
meet the wishes of Miss Trevor in the matter of trans-shipment, had
caused a bright look-out for ships to be maintained throughout both day
and night.

A week, or maybe rather more than that, had elapsed since Potter's death
when Leslie discovered what appeared to him a fresh cause for the
apprehension of future trouble. It was Purchas who this time gave rise
to the apprehension. The fellow had, from the moment when Leslie and
Miss Trevor first came aboard the brig, been exceedingly civil and
obliging to them both, cheerfully doing everything that lay in his power
to make them comfortable. It is true that, perhaps in return for this,
he had not hesitated to invoke Leslie's assistance in the matter of
navigating the brig, and standing a watch--in fact, performing the
duties of a mate; but this, under the circumstances, was perfectly
natural, and quite in accord with Leslie's own inclination.

But later, within a few days of Potter's death, indeed, Leslie thought
he detected in Purchas an inclination to shirk some of the more
important duties of the ship, such as the navigation of her, for
instance, and relegate them entirely to him. Even this, however, did
not greatly worry Leslie. In any case, he always took the necessary
observations for the determination of the brig's latitude and longitude,
independently of Purchas; and whether the latter checked his
observations or not was a matter of indifference to him, since he had
the fullest confidence in the accuracy of his own work--a confidence,
indeed, that Purchas appeared to fully share, since, in the event of any
discrepancy between them, the new skipper always accepted Leslie's
results in preference to his own. This, however, was not the chief
cause of Leslie's disquietude, which arose from the fact that on more
than one occasion, when it had been his "eight hours out," he had
noticed, when calling Purchas at midnight, that the latter's breath had
smelt strongly of rum, and that the man, upon taking the deck, had
appeared to be strongly under the influence of drink. So markedly,
indeed, was this the case upon a recent occasion that Leslie had taxed
him with it.

"Look here, Mr Purchas," he had