ck." As he finished he staggered into the door of the forward
cabin and made for his room, leaving me in command.

I went aft and saw the lubber's mark holding on west by south, and after
being satisfied that the man steering could tell port from starboard, I
climbed the steps to the poop and took a good look around. It was a
beautiful morning and the sun shone brightly over our quarter-rail. The
land behind us stood boldly outlined against the sky, and the lumpy
clouds above were rosy with sunlight.

The air was cool, but not too sharp for comfort; the breeze from the
southward blew steadily and just sent the tops of the waves to foam, here
and there, like white stars appearing and disappearing on the expanse to
windward. The _Pirate_ lay along on the port tack, and with her skysails
to her trucks she made a beautiful sight. Her canvas was snowy white,
showing that no money had been spared on her sails. Her spars were all
painted or scraped and her standing rigging tarred down to a beautiful
blackness. Only on deck and among the ropes of her running gear was shown
that sign of untidiness which distinguishes the merchant vessel from the
man-of-war.

I managed to get some hands to work on the braces, and finally got the
yards trimmed shipshape and in the American fashion. That was, with the
lower yards sharp on the back-stays, the topsails a little further aft,
the t'gallant a little further still, until the main-skysail was almost
touching with its weather leach cutting into the breeze a point or more
forward of the weather beam. The fore and aft canvas was trimmed well,
and the outer jibs lifted the ship along at a slapping rate. She was
evidently fast in spite of her load, and I looked over the side at the
foam that was seething past the lee channels in swirls and eddies which
gave forth a cheerful hissing sound as they slipped aft at the rate of
six knots an hour. The man at the wheel held her easily, and that was a
blessing; for nothing is much worse for a mate's discomfort than a wild
ship sheering from side to side leaving a wake like the path of some
monstrous snake.

When I looked again on the main deck I saw the figure of a man whom I
failed to recognize as a member of the ship's company. He was standing
near the opening of the after-hatchway, which had not yet been battened
down, and his gaze was fixed upon me. He was a broad-shouldered fellow,
about the average height, and was dressed in a tight-fitting bl