t, as he watched the studded
belt of the Hunter and the glittering Pleiades, the Horatian dread of
_Nimbosus Orion_ occurred to him as a thought to be put away.

Meantime there was a breeze from the land, and the sail was hoisted.
Yusuf bade both Arthur and Fareek lie down to sleep, for their exertions
would be wanted by and by, since it would not be safe to use the sail by
daylight. It was very cold--wild blasts coming down from the mountains;
but Arthur crept under the woollen mantle that had been laid over Ulysse,
and was weary enough to sleep soundly. Both were awakened by the hauling
down of the mast; and the little boy, who had quite slept off the drug,
scrambling out from under the covering, was astonished beyond measure at
finding himself between the glittering, sparkling expanse of sea and the
sky, where the sun had just leapt up in a blaze of gold.

The white summits of Atlas were tipped with rosy light, beautiful to
behold, though the voyagers had much rather have been out of sight of
them.

'How much have we made, Yusuf?' began Arthur.

'Tam Armstrong, so please you, sir! Yusuf's dead and buried the noo; and
if I were farther beyant the grip of them that kenned him, my thrapple
would feel all the sounder!'

This day was, he further explained, the most perilous one, since they
were by no means beyond the track of vessels plying on the coast; and as
a very jagged and broken cluster of rocks lay near, he decided on
availing themselves of the shelter they afforded. The boat was steered
into a narrow channel between two which stood up like the fangs of a
great tooth, and afforded a pleasant shade; but there was such a
screaming and calling of gulls, terns, cormorants, and all manner of
other birds, as they entered the little strait, and such a cloud of them
hovered and whirled overhead, that Tam uttered imprecations on their
skirling, and bade his companions lie close and keep quiet till they had
settled again, lest the commotion should betray that the rocks were the
lair of fugitives.

It was not easy to keep Ulysse quiet, for he was in raptures at the rush
of winged creatures, and no less so at the wonderful sea-anemones and
starfish in the pools, where long streamers of weed of beautiful colours
floated on the limpid water.

Nothing reduced him to stillness but the sight of the dried goat's flesh
and dates that Tam Armstrong produced, and for which all had appetites,
which had to be checked, since