in gold. Our lying becalmed
here wasn't such a bad thing after all--and here comes the breeze. Jest
like finding money in an old coat, Mr. Webb--that's what that was."

And so the shrewd old fellow turned everything to account. We got a
breeze and were out of sight of the place before the small craft had got
the big whale towed into the inlet--where they would beach it and cut
it up. Captain Adoniram Tugg was two hundred dollars in pocket, and just
because some mysterious sea-beast had seen fit to kill a whale for its
tongue!

We had a fine breeze after the long calm, but nothing but fair weather
until we rounded the Cape of the Virgins. There the broad entrance of
the magnificent Straits of Magellan lay before the nose of the schooner.
A little later we had furled all but the topsails and were sailing due
north into an inlet masked by many dangerous looking reefs. The mate of
the Sea Spell, Pedro, seemed to know the channel well, however, and
although Adoniram Tugg remained on deck he did not seem to be worried at
all about the schooner's safety.

"We'll drop anchor before morning," he told me. "That is, if the wind
holds in the same quarter. You'll have a chance to see what sort of a
good fellow the Professor is tomorrow."

"What! are we so near your headquarters?"

"That's the checker," returned Tugg. "Just a short sail now."

The inlet was never more than a mile wide; in places the rocks crowded
in toward the channel until a strong man could have flung a stone from
shore to shore. The waterway was really a series of quiet salt pools.

The shores were wild and rugged. I had never seen a more forbidding
coast. When the night dropped down upon us--as it did suddenly, and a
starless sky o'er-head--I wondered how Pedro could smell his way
through. I heard Tugg roaring something in Spanish about "the beacon"
and then a spark of fire flared out in the darkness far ahead. It looked
like a stationary lamp and burned brightly. The captain came over to me,
chuckling.

"That's my partner's light," he said, with satisfaction. "He rigged that
beacon, and it's lit every night that the Sea Spell is on a cruise.
Pedro can work the schooner up the inlet by that light without rubbing a
hair."

And so we sailed on, and on, without a thought of danger until, of a
sudden, I felt the schooner jar throughout her whole length. Captain
Tugg jumped and yelled to Pedro:

"What in tarnation you doin', numbskull? Hi, one o' you boys!