y every soul on board the "Sea
Witch," shouted sternly:

"Silence in the ship!"

Not a voice was heard, and every man quietly awaited his order, looking
abashed that there had been a tongue heard save his who had the right
alone to speak.

"Cast the gasket off the foot of the fore and aft foresail."

"Ay, ay, sir!" responded the mate, who having secured the rudder, now
hastened by his commander, followed by a dozen hands, to execute the
order.

"Haul the sheet to port!"

"Ay, ay, sir!"

"Belay that!"

As the vessel felt the power of the canvass thus opportunely loosed and
brought to bear, she gradually paid off before the wind, and once more
had steerage way. Another foresail was now bent, and this time
double-reefed, the foretopsail, too, was bent, close-reefed and furled,
while the fore and aft foresail was once more stowed, leaving the "Sea
Witch" to scud under double-reefed foresail.

Five days of steady blow continued before the vessel could again show
more than a small portion of her canvass. Then the wind once more hauled
to the northwest, and the "Sea Witch" donned heir fore and aft rig on
all her masts steering close-hauled again due cast, until the lofty
headlands of the Cape de Verds hove gradually in sight, and the fleet
clipper craft made her anchorage in the harbor of Port Praya.

The "Sea Witch," whatever her business in this harbor, seemed able to
transact it without venturing inside the forts, or taking stronger
moorings than a single anchor could afford her. At this she rode with
mysterious quiet. Not a soul of the full complement of men on board were
visible from the shore; now and then perhaps the head of some taller
hand than his fellows might loom up above the bulwarks at the waist, or
a solitary seaman creep quietly aloft to reave a sheet through some
block, or secure some portion of the rigging. The captain scarcely
waited for his land-tackle to hold the vessel before a quarter-boat was
lowered away, and with a half-dozen sturdy fellows as its crew pulled
boldly towards the main landing, where he stepped ashore and
disappeared.

A suspicious eye would have marked the manner in which the sails upon
the "Sea Witch" had been secured, and the way in which she was moored.
If need be, three minutes would have covered her with canvass, and
slipping her cable she could in that space of time, had the order been
issued from her quarter deck, have been under way and looking once more
seaward