ty-six hours after getting up anchor that they were
abreast of the lighthouse.

"I try to be patient, George," Mallett said, "but it is enough to
make a saint swear. We have lost eight or ten hours instead of
making a gain, although we had the advantage of coming through the
Needles passage, while they had to go round at the back of the
island to escape observation."

"Yes, sir, but you know we have often found that sometimes one,
sometimes another, makes a gain in these shifty winds; perhaps
tomorrow we may be running along fast, and the Phantom be lying
without a breath of wind."

"That is so, George. I will try to bear it in mind. There, you see,
the skipper is taking the exact bearing of the lighthouse, and we
shall soon be heading south."

In five minutes the captain gave the order to the helmsman, and the
craft was then laid on her new course.

"The wind is northing a bit," the skipper said as, after giving the
helmsman instructions, he came up to Frank. "It has shifted two
points round in the last half hour, and you see we have got the
boom off a bit. If it goes round a point more we will get the
square-sail ready for hoisting. It will help her along rarely when
the head-sails cease to be of any good."

Half an hour later the wind had gone round far enough for the
square-sail to be used to advantage, and it was accordingly
hoisted. The captain then had the barrels brought aft, and ranged
along each side of the bulwark.

For eight-and-forty hours the Osprey maintained her speed, leaving
all the sailing vessels she overtook far behind her, and keeping
for hours abreast of a cargo steamer going in the same direction.

"She is bound for Finisterre," the skipper said, "and we shall pass
it some thirty miles to the west, so our courses will gradually
draw apart; but we shall see her smoke anyhow until we are pretty
nigh abreast of the cape--that is, if the wind holds as it is now.
It is falling lighter this afternoon."

Two or three hours later the wind died away altogether, the
square-sail was got down, and the skipper then said:

"I will get the topsail down, too, sir. We can easily get it up
again, and I will put a smaller jib on her. I don't at all think by
the look of the sky that we are going to have a blow. The glass
would have altered more if we were, but one never can tell. I would
not risk the loss of a spar for anything."

"I should think that you might put a couple of reefs in the
mainsail,