termine.

"Now, lads, we will get up the anchor and pull away into the offing,
though one cheer before we go for our island home."

A cheerful hurrah burst from the lips of the party, the anchor was
lifted and stowed, and the oars being got out, they pulled merrily down
the harbour. The entrance to the passage was as smooth as the rest of
the bay. Having at length got well into the offing, Tom and Desmond had
to decide in which direction to steer. The chart showed them Guam, the
principal of the Ladrone Islands, much further off than Yokohama, on the
coast of Japan, towards which they proposed steering. The wind, too,
was from the north-east, and should it continue from the same point,
they might reach some place in the latter islands, much sooner than they
could hope to arrive at Guam. Still, as they had taken it into their
heads that the _Dragon_ would touch at Guam, they were far more inclined
to go there than to Japan. When Tom, however, considered the risk of
running short of water and of fresh provisions, he decided that they
ought to attempt to reach Japan. Desmond agreed with him, and he
accordingly at once put the boat's head to the north-west. The wind was
so light that both the jib and gaff-topsail were set, and the boat
which, at a distance, would have looked like a little cutter, stood well
up to her canvas.

"She will do it, sir," said Jerry Bird. "She is going better than four
knots an hour now, and if there comes a stiff breeze, we shall get six
out of her."

Tom was not quite so sanguine as to that; indeed, when he came to heave
a log which he had fitted, he found that she was making really only
three and a half knots, though that, considering the lightness of the
wind, was very good. The little island on which they had spent so many
days drew gradually astern. They could see others away to the
northward. They concluded that they were also uninhabited, or, if there
were any people on them, that they were not likely to afford them any
assistance. At last the island itself faded from sight, and as the sun
went down they floated in the midst of a watery circle. Tom, with
Desmond and Jerry Bird, had taken the helm one after another, for Billy
had had no experience, and neither of the other men could be trusted to
steer by the compass. As it got dark Tom wisely took in the
gaff-topsail and jib, while he kept a hand always ready to lower the
mainsail, should a sudden squall strike the boat.