mmand, or even yet I shall do you a mischief."

"No," I said, "I will _not_ go below; it is my watch on deck, and I mean
to keep it. I have no fear of your temper getting the better of you
now, so I shall remain where I am--that is, if you will trust me with
the charge of the deck. I am fresh, while you are fagged with exertion
and excitement, so it is for _you_ to go below and get some rest, not
I."

Mendouca laughed again, this time quite genially, and said--

"Very well, let it be as you say; I _will go_ below and rest. And if it
is any comfort to you to know it, I do not mind acknowledging _now_ that
I am glad you intervened to prevent me from firing on that boat. Keep
her as she is going and let the niggers man the sweeps again; you are
right about that brig, she will follow us to the world's end--if she
can, so we must put all the distance possible between ourselves and her
while this calm lasts."

And, repeating to the boatswain his orders respecting the manning of the
sweeps, this singular man nodded shortly to me and dived out of sight
down the companion-way.

In a few minutes a gang of slaves was again brought on deck and put to
the sweeps; and steering a course of about south-south-west, we were
soon once more moving through the water at a speed of about three knots.
This course was followed all through the night and up to eight o'clock
the next morning, at which hour--one of the men having been sent aloft
as far as the royal-yard to see whether any sign of the brig could be
discovered, and having returned to the deck again with an intimation
that the horizon was clear all round--the brigantine's position was
pricked off upon the chart and her head once more pointed straight for
Cuba.

We had by this time traversed a distance of fully sixty miles under the
impulsion of the sweeps alone, and everybody was anxiously watching for
some sign of a coming breeze; yet, despite the already long continuance
of the calm, the heavens were still as brass to us, clear, cloudless,
blue as the fathomless depths beneath our feet, not the merest vestige
of cloud to be seen, the mercury still persistently steady at an
abnormal height, the sea as smooth and motionless as a sheet of glass,
and not the smallest sign to justify us in hoping for any change. The
heat was something absolutely phenomenal; the deck planking was so hot
that we all had to wear shoes to protect our feet from being scorched; a
gang of negroes wa