ut I
considered enough to be as good as a feast. Studding-sails are rather
ungainly things to handle in a quickly freshening breeze, if one happens
to be at all short-handed. I therefore determined to have nothing to do
with them--the more resolutely that, as we drew away from the island,
the breeze strengthened until we were reeling off our nine knots by the
log.

This exceedingly satisfactory state of affairs prevailed for exactly
forty hours from noon of the day upon which we left the island; the
breeze remaining so steady and true that we were not called upon to
touch tack, sheet, or halliard during the whole time. There was
nothing, in fact, to do but simply to steer the ship; and we were
already beginning to flatter ourselves that we were not only to be
favoured with a pleasant passage, but that we were going to accomplish
it in about half the time that I had allotted to it. Such a magnificent
opportunity was not to be wasted; and I accordingly took advantage of it
to have the ballast cleared away right in midships, and the gold and
silver stowed there equally on each side of the keelson, and carefully
concealed with matting and a quantity of dunnage; after which the
ballast was trimmed back over it and everything left shipshape against
the time of our arrival in port.

In hoping for a sufficiently long continuance of fine weather to carry
us without break or interruption to Honolulu, however, we were reckoning
without our host; for about four o'clock in the morning of our second
day out, the wind began to fail us, and by eight o'clock it had fallen
to a stark, glassy calm. There had been but a moderate amount of sea
running, and this soon went down, leaving only a long, oily swell, upon
which the ship rolled with a quick, jerky, uneasy movement. The sun
rose clear and brilliant, with every promise of a fine and scorchingly
hot day; but when I went on deck after breakfast to take my sights for
the longitude, I noticed that the sky had lost much of its brilliant
colouring, while the sun hung in it a white, shapeless blotch, instead
of the dazzling orb that had risen a few hours before. This, of course,
might mean nothing worse than heat; but when I went below shortly
afterwards to work out my sights, I saw that the mercury had fallen a
little. This, too, might only mean heat, with possibly a smart
thunderstorm a little later on in the day; but, short-handed as we were,
I deemed it best to be on the safe s