oubt; but where is that?"

"To Arequipa."

"I knew nothing of it," said Clubin.

He added:

"I am going to bed."

He lighted his candle, walked towards the door, and returned.

"Have you ever been at Arequipa, Captain?"

"Yes; some years ago."

"Where do they touch on that voyage?"

"A little everywhere; but the _Tamaulipas_ will touch nowhere."

M. Gertrais-Gaboureau emptied his pipe upon the corner of a plate and
continued:

"You know the lugger called the _Trojan Horse_, and that fine
three-master, the _Trentemouzin_, which are gone to Cardiff? I was
against their sailing on account of the weather. They have returned in a
fine state. The lugger was laden with turpentine; she sprang a leak, and
in working the pumps they pumped up with the water all her cargo. As to
the three-master, she has suffered most above water. Her cutwater, her
headrail, the stock of her larboard anchor are broken. Her standing
jibboom is gone clean by the cap. As for the jib-shrouds and bobstays,
go and see what they look like. The mizenmast is not injured, but has
had a severe shock. All the iron of the bowsprit has given way; and it
is an extraordinary fact that, though the bowsprit itself is not
scratched, it is completely stripped. The larboard-bow of the vessel is
stove in a good three feet square. This is what comes of not taking
advice."

Clubin had placed the candle on the table, and had begun to readjust a
row of pins which he kept in the collar of his overcoat. He continued:

"Didn't you say, Captain, that the _Tamaulipas_ would not touch
anywhere?"

"Yes; she goes direct to Chili."

"In that case, she can send no news of herself on the voyage."

"I beg your pardon, Captain Clubin. In the first place, she can send any
letters by vessels she may meet sailing for Europe."

"That is true."

"Then there is the ocean letter-box."

"What do you mean by the ocean letter-box?"

"Don't you know what that is, Captain Clubin?"

"No."

"When you pass the straits of Magellan----"

"Well."

"Snow all round you; always bad weather; ugly down-easters, and bad
seas."

"Well."

"When you have doubled Cape Monmouth----"

"Well, what next?"

"Then you double Cape Valentine."

"And then?"

"Why, then you double Cape Isidore."

"And afterwards?"

"You double Point Anne."

"Good. But what is it you call the ocean letter-box?"

"We are coming to that. Mountains on the right, mountains on the left.
Penguins a