d clambered into the boats holding the coins in their mouths. One
youth more daring than the others mounted to the upper deck of our
steamer and offered, if a shilling instead of a penny was thrown into
the water, to plunge from his high perch to the sea fifty feet below and
get the silver. And he won much applause by successfully accomplishing
the feat.

[Illustration: THE TUG CARRIED US TO THE MOLTKE.]

Toward evening the whistle of the steamer sounded warning notes. The
time for sailing was at hand. The tourists who had been loitering on the
shore hastened to return. The peddlers on the deck reluctantly packed
their unsold wares and with their bundles descended the ship's ladder.
The visitors, after courteously bidding adieu to the officials who had
been entertaining them, took their departure. But the trained swimmers
whose antics in the water were giving so much amusement tarried until
ordered away. Then while our band played a farewell air, Sousa's "Hands
Across the Sea," the Moltke slowly steamed out of the harbor.

CHAPTER III.

GIBRALTAR.

"Is not this a German vessel?" asked a passenger of the first officer,
as they stood conversing near the gymnasium on the upper deck the
morning after we left Funchal.

"Most surely it is," he replied, astonished at the question.

"Then," pointing to the red ensign floating at the top of the foremast,
"why does the Moltke fly the British colors?"

"The British flag at our foremast indicates that this ship is bound for
a port that belongs to Great Britain," explained the mate. "When we sail
from Gibraltar the Union Jack will be replaced by the French tri-color
to show that we are then on the way to a French port. The emblem on the
fore-mast will be changed many times before we return to New York. But
there," turning and pointing to the rear, "in its place at the stern is
the German standard, the flag of our fatherland. There it will remain
throughout the cruise. Above us, too, on the mast nearest the stern, the
white pennant bearing the letters H. A. P. A. G., the insignia of the
company that owns the Moltke, will constantly fly."

The evening we sailed from Funchal each lady found beside her plate at
the dinner table a bunch of violets, a memento from the flower gardens
of Madeira; and on St. Valentine's Day each found there a package
containing a pretty fan with the compliments of the Captain. At this
dinner on the fourteenth of February much merriment prev