k, casting off halyards and sheets, and dragging
vociferously upon clew-garnets, clewlines, downhauls, and the other
complicated paraphernalia of a ship's furniture, with the captain
shouting orders from the poop, and the mate in charge of a gang of men
on the forecastle getting the anchor a-cockbill ready for letting go,
and preparing for the arrival of the tug alongside. Then up came the
little steamer, rolling and pitching heavily upon the long ground swell,
sweeping round in a long curve that brought her all but alongside the
wallowing ship; a brief interchange of hails between her bridge and the
_Concordia's_ poop, the sudden snaking out of a whirling heaving-line
from the forecastle of the latter, followed by the thin but tremendously
strong steel towing hawser; and as the few remaining sheets of the
ship's canvas shrivelled in to the masts and yards the tug passed ahead,
the towrope rose dripping out of the water, tautened to the semblance of
a metal rod, and away went the two craft, heading for the middle of the
space of water that divided the two breakwaters. Half an hour later the
_Concordia_ came to an anchor in the spacious but shallow inner harbour
opposite the railway station, and the long voyage was at an end.

But the eager passengers were not yet at liberty to go on shore.
Although the _Concordia_ carried a clean bill of health, certain
formalities had yet to be gone through; the medical officer had still to
satisfy himself that there was no sickness of any infectious kind on
board before pratique was granted. And, as the medical officer happened
to be a thoroughly conscientious man, the determination of this fact
consumed a full hour. But at length the tedious examination came to an
end, the ship was pronounced perfectly healthy, and the boats which had
been hovering round her were permitted to come alongside. Then ensued a
few minutes of strenuous bargaining between passengers and boatmen, at
the end of which time Dick and Grosvenor, having said goodbye to the
captain and officers--Dick also included the crew in his farewell--found
themselves being pulled across the few yards of water which intervened
between ship and shore, and presently they stood upon the sun-blistered
wharf fighting their way through an odoriferous crowd of shouting,
laughing, gesticulating, and more than half-naked Kafir rickshaw-men who
clamoured for the honour of dragging them the mile or so that separated
the Point from Du