account--wasn't that so?"

"Ah! yes, I remember now, sir. Well, then, when the _Dolphin_ had got
well away from us, leaving us poor chaps to our own resources, we in the
pinnace, now well under her canvas, were sailing along on a course
almost at right angles to that taken by our old ship, which somewhat
took away from the nasty feeling of being sort of left behind, you know;
but, we could not help watching her with longing eyes as she sped away
northward under full steam and with all her fore-and-aft sails set that
could draw, going fourteen knots at the least!

"It was a lovely morning that there--the loveliest I ever saw on the
African coast; for there was no mist, and the rain having ceased, the
strong sou'-westerly breeze that was blowing right offshore from the
mainland tempered down the heat of the broiling sun, which only those
who have been on the coast can have an idea of as to how intense it can
be, while the pinnace was moving quickly through the water; and it was
not long before the _Dolphin_ was hull down on the horizon, the white
gleam of her upper canvas vanishing soon after. But, for a long time
succeeding that, we could still see the smoke from her funnel spread out
in the shape of a fan to leeward, where it was blown by the following
wind right across the sky and was clearly apparent in the clear blue air
above as well as reflected in the sea below. Then, too, that
disappeared at length, and we were left alone in our little boat on the
waste of waters!

"I tell you we did feel a bit melancholy and down in the dumps then,
especially as all hands knew the errand on which the old ship had gone
and felt that we were out of the fun! However, I did not give the men
time to think of this too long; for, acting under the directions given
me by the skipper, I steered the pinnace towards the coast to windward
of the Comoro Islands, intending after dark to creep up under the lee of
Saint Juan, where I'd been told the dhows mostly made for when the coast
was clear; and, what with trimming the sails and making taut the sheets,
as well as stationing a special look-out in the bows and one in the
stern behind me at the helm, I soon managed to turn the men's attention
away from the _Dolphin_, though some of them still seemed chop-fallen,
being new to boat cruising and not relishing the work.

"Of course, I knew in what a responsible position I was--almost like
that of the captain of a ship; for, I could order th