orld, or why the captain was so polite to him. Perhaps it
was for his daughter's sake. He was stiff and donnish, and had scarcely
condescended to speak to any one. Jack and Terence defended him on this
point, but still he did not appear to have made a favourable impression
during the day he had been on board.

With a leading wind and on the brightest of bright mornings, the frigate
was standing towards the Boca de Huevos, one of the dragon's mouths,
which lead out of the Gulf of Paria into the open ocean. Everything
looked brilliant--the ship herself, the sea, the sky, the land. The
passage seemed broad enough for a dozen ships to sail out abreast,
between the lofty tree-covered crags which formed the shores of the
islands on either side. Still every precaution was taken; the lead was
kept going, the crew were at their stations. Stella and her father
stood on the deck watching the shore as the ship glided rapidly on.
Lieutenant Jennings was the only person at liberty to attend to them,
and he was doing his best to make himself agreeable; but he found, after
a few attempts, that he succeeded better with the colonel than with his
daughter. "Grand cliffs those," he observed; "awkward for a ship to run
against. No chance of our doing so, however."

"Not so certain of that," answered the colonel. "The wind is scant and
has fallen."

The yards were braced sharp up, and the quartermaster was keeping the
ship as close to the wind as possible.

"Why we are almost through the passage; a few hundred yards more, and we
shall be in the open sea," remarked the lieutenant.

"Without a breeze those few hundred yards will be too much for us," said
the colonel.

As he spoke the sails gave a loud flap; now they filled, and the
countenance of the captain brightened; now they flapped again, and it
soon became evident that the frigate was drifting, stern first, away
from the line of the open sea so nearly reached, towards the cliffs on
the starboard hand, driven by a fierce current, which set in diagonally
from the northward through the passage. Slowly but certainly she
floated back. Had it been directly through the passage, it would not
have mattered; but having no steerage way, she was at the mercy of the
current, and that was taking her directly towards the cliffs. Many an
eye was turned aloft to the canvas on which their safety depended. Just
then the most coal-begrimed steamer would not have been despised. The
capt