eed, I did my best to encourage this spirit of
forgetfulness, since through all the new enjoyment I could not but feel
that danger surrounded us on every hand, and that I was but just
embarked on that great mission I had undertaken.

In this mood, when dinner was done, I suggested that Roderick should
take Mary through the city awhile, and that I should get back to the
_Celsis_, there to secure what papers were left for me, and to arrange,
after thought, what my next step in the following of Captain Black
should be. The skipper had friends to see in New York, and agreed that
he would follow me to the yacht in a couple of hours, and that he would
meet the others in the hotel after they had come from their excursion.
This plan fell in with my own, and I said "Good-bye" cheerfully enough
to the three men as I buttoned up my coat; and sent for a coach. If I
had known then that the next time I should meet them would be after
weeks of danger and of peril, of sojourn in strange places, and of life
amongst terrible men!

I was driven to the wharf very quickly, and got aboard the yacht with
no trouble. There was a man keeping watch upon her decks; and Dan had
been in the sick man's cabin taking drink to him. He told me that he
was more easy, and spoke with the full use of his senses; and that he
had fallen off into a comfortable sleep "since an hour." I was glad at
the news, and went to my own cabin, getting my papers, my revolver, and
other things that I might have need of ashore.

This work occupied me forty minutes or more; but as I was ready to go
back to the others I looked into Paolo's cabin, and, somewhat to my
surprise, I saw that he was dressed, and seemingly about to quit the
yacht. This discovery set me aglow with expectation. If the man were
going ashore, whither could he go except to his associates, to those
who were connected with Black and his crew? Was not that the very clue
I had been hoping to get since I knew that we had a spy aboard us?
Otherwise, I might wait a year and hear no more of the man or of his
work except such tidings as should come from the sea. Indeed, my mind
was made up in a moment: I would follow Paolo, at any risk, even of my
life.

This thought sent me forward again into the fo'castle, where Dan was.

"Hist, Dan!" said I, "give me a man's rig-out--a jersey and some
breeches and a cap--quick," and, while the old fellow stared and
whistled softly, I helped to ransack his box; and in a tri