y, to get it.

So, after a long debate and a careful examination of the chart, which I
brought on deck for the purpose, we decided to bear away on a course as
though bound to New Zealand.

This took us about a point farther off the wind than we had been
steering for the last few hours; but we did not trouble much about that,
as we hoped to give the brig the slip some time during the ensuing
night.

Accordingly we bore away upon the course decided on; the sails were
trimmed with the utmost nicety, and then, it being about the time for
our evening meal, I took the tiller, while Bob went below to look after
the kettle.

The brig was by this time about six or seven miles astern of us, and was
steering directly after us, with apparently every stitch of canvas set
that would draw. I lashed the tiller for a moment, and jumped down
below for my sextant, with which I returned to the deck, and carefully
set him by it, with the view of ascertaining just before dark whether he
had gained anything on us, or we on him, in the interim.

Tea being ready, Bob served it on deck; and whilst we leisurely
discussed the meal, we talked over our chances of dodging our pursuer
during the night.

Unfortunately, these now appeared to be rather slender; for there was
not a cloud to be seen, and the moon, well advanced in her second
quarter, was already visible in the deep sapphire of the eastern sky ere
the west had well begun to glow with the rich warm hues of sunset. And
to add to our difficulty in this respect, the wind again fell lighter,
and ere long died completely away.

The sun went down in calm and cloudless splendour; the golden glories of
the west deepened into rich crimson, then faded into purple, and from
purple into warm grey; the brief twilight quickly deepened into night,
and the moon, "sweet regent of the sky," shed her soft silvery beams
abroad over the tranquil ocean; while the larger stars added their
mellow radiance to beautify the scene.

There was not the faintest breath of wind to ruffle the mirror-like
surface of the long glassy swells as they undulated sluggishly beneath
us; and the flap of our canvas, the pattering of the reef-points, the
creaking of the main-boom, and the occasional "_cheep, cheep_" of the
rudder upon its pintles, served but to mark and emphasise the deep calm
of sleeping Nature.

It was a glorious night--a night of such exquisite loveliness as is
perhaps never witnessed except when far a