t in sight of the
huge cloud-cap't mountain above Santa Cruz, the wind that had favoured
them so well up to now dropped to a dead calm; so, Captain Lennard,
ordering the sails to be furled and the screw-propeller lowered, the
vessel was able to proceed under steam across the equator, making almost
as good time as when sailing before a good breeze--almost, but not
quite, as she was a clipper under canvas.

They touched once more at the Cape of Good Hope, to fill up the coal
they had expended in case of another emergency necessitating their
steaming again; but, the wind being favourable when the _Greenock_ got
below the forties, she bowled along steadily before it under canvas,
reaching Melbourne within sixty days.

Altogether, the voyage was uneventful except for one thing, and that was
the persistent bullying of Mr Capstan the second-mate, who, whether
from his relationship to Uncle Jack, his superior officer, or from some
other cause, had apparently conceived such a dislike to Teddy that he
tyrannised over him more than he seemed to think necessary either with
little Maitland or Jones--although they suffered, too, at his hands!

Teddy would not complain, though, to the captain; and as for his Uncle
Jack, he would have thought it dishonourable to breathe a word to him.
He would rather have suffered the crudest torture the bully could
inflict than that!

However, he and little Maitland matured their plans together, and coming
to the conclusion that they could not very well have any satisfaction
from Mr Capstan without telling tales, they determined to steal away
from the ship when she got into harbour, and run away ashore up into the
bush, Val Maitland retailing for Teddy's benefit the most wonderful
stories anent gold-digging and bush-ranging--stories that cordially
agreed with his own fancy.

Not long, therefore, after the _Greenock_ had entered within Port Philip
Heads and got up to Sandridge Pier, the two boys, mixing amongst the
crowd of passengers landing, touters touting for various boarding-
houses, and all the different sorts of people that throng round the
newly-arrived at the colonial metropolis, especially at its harbour
mouth, managed easily to get into the town unobserved, giving the slip
most successfully to their ship and all its belongings.

"And what shall we do now?" asked Teddy, his companion, although smaller
than himself, taking the lead, from being an older sailor and having
been previously