pe of a speedy and prosperous
completion of the voyage.

It was a chilly and boisterous afternoon, the clouds were hurrying in
leaden-coloured layers along the sky, the sea was all in a foam, and
patches of whitish upper clouds, beneath which the lower drift was
scudding, threw a lurid light over the wide expanse of ocean. The wind,
which had hitherto been favourable, now veered, and obliged them to
tack. The captain, at this juncture, was on the poop, with Frank
Oldfield by him.

"I haven't seen Mr Juniper Graves to-day," said the former.

"To tell you the truth," answered Frank, "he and I have been having a
few words together."

"I'm not sorry for it," remarked the captain drily; "nothing serious,
however, I hope."

"Nothing very, perhaps; but the matter's simply this: I've been fool
enough to play cards with him for rather high stakes lately, and I fancy
that I've detected my man peeping over my cards, and using a little
sleight of hand in his shuffling too."

"I'll be bound he has," remarked the other.

"If he'd been a poor man," added Frank, "I could have excused it; but
the fellow's got a whole fortune in nuggets and notes stowed about him.
He's a sort of walking `Crocus,' as he told me once, when he wasn't over
sober,--meaning `Croesus,' of course."

"And so you've given him a little of your mind, I suppose."

"Yes; and it's wounded my gentleman's dignity considerably; so there he
is below, hugging his gold, and comforting himself in his own way, which
isn't much in your line or Jacob's, captain, and I wish it wasn't in
mine."

"In other words," said Captain Merryweather, "he's pretty nearly drunk
by this time."

"You're somewhere about right," was the reply. Immediately after this
short dialogue the captain proceeded to give the orders for tacking in a
stentorian voice, as the wind was high.

"Ready, ho! ready!" he cried. All were standing ready at their posts.
Then the word was given to the man at the wheel.

"Helm's a-lee!" roared the captain. There was rattling of chains,
flapping of canvas, and shuffling of feet.

"Mainsail h-a-u-aul!" bellowed the captain in a prolonged shout. Round
went the great sail under the swift and strong pulls of willing hands.

"Let go, and h-a-u-aul!" once more roared out the captain in a voice of
thunder.

It was just at this moment, when all was apparent confusion, when ropes
were rattling, feet stamping, sails quivering, that Juniper Graves
emerged f