as eye
can reach, spreads the vast and restless sea.

II

AN UNEXPECTED FLASK OF BRANDY

On the Friday morning, the day after the departure of the _Tamaulipas_,
the Durande started again for Guernsey.

She left St. Malo at nine o'clock. The weather was fine; no haze. Old
Captain Gertrais-Gaboureau was evidently in his dotage.

Sieur Clubin's numerous occupations had decidedly been unfavourable to
the collection of freight for the Durande. He had only taken aboard some
packages of Parisian articles for the fancy shops of St. Peter's Port;
three cases for the Guernsey hospital, one containing yellow soap and
long candles, and the other French shoe leather for soles, and choice
Cordovan skins. He brought back from his last cargo a case of crushed
sugar and three chests of congou tea, which the French custom-house
would not permit to pass. He had embarked very few cattle; some bullocks
only. These bullocks were in the hold loosely tethered.

There were six passengers aboard; a Guernsey man, two inhabitants of St.
Malo, dealers in cattle: a "tourist,"--a phrase already in vogue at this
period--a Parisian citizen, probably travelling on commercial affairs,
and an American, engaged in distributing Bibles.

Without reckoning Clubin, the crew of the Durande amounted to seven men;
a helmsman, a stoker, a ship's carpenter, and a cook--serving as sailors
in case of need--two engineers, and a cabin boy. One of the two
engineers was also a practical mechanic. This man, a bold and
intelligent Dutch negro, who had originally escaped from the sugar
plantations of Surinam, was named Imbrancam. The negro, Imbrancam,
understood and attended admirably to the engine. In the early days of
the "Devil Boat," his black face, appearing now and then at the top of
the engine-room stairs, had contributed not a little to sustain its
diabolical reputation.

The helmsman, a native of Guernsey, but of a family originally from
Cotentin, bore the name of Tangrouille. The Tangrouilles were an old
noble family.

This was strictly true. The Channel Islands are like England, an
aristocratic region. Castes exist there still. The castes have their
peculiar ideas, which are, in fact, their protection. These notions of
caste are everywhere similar; in Hindostan, as in Germany, nobility is
won by the sword; lost by soiling the hands with labour: but preserved
by idleness. To do nothing, is to live nobly; whoever abstains from work
is honoured.