the dockyard, the
_Merlin_ indeed lying out in French Creek all ready to return to her
station within forty-eight hours of our arrival at Valetta.

So, on the third morning, a lot of signalling went on between our ship
and the flagstaff ashore at the naval station, the upshot being that we
were ordered to sail early in the afternoon; when, steam being got up
and the anchor weighed, we bade adieu to the island, leaving Saint Elmo
Point on our port hand and shaping a course eastward.

When we were nearing Alexandria, we had a bit of a `Levanter,' which
delayed our progress for half a day, during which time we had to slow
down our engines and keep under easy steam, head to sea; but, after
that, the weather was as fine as we could wish, and we got through the
Canal without a hitch, not a single vessel blocking us, even after
passing the Bitter Lakes, a very unusual thing at this period of the
year, when the China clippers crowd the narrow waterway and cause
repeated stoppages as a rule to ships outward bound.

On emerging from the Canal, at Suez, we made the best of our way down
the Red Sea to Suakin, where we found despatches from the senior officer
of the East African station, to which we were attached, directing us to
join him off the island of Socotra; and that if we did not come across
him there we were to cruise along the coast between Ras Hafim and Obbia,
where it was reported the Somali Arabs were getting busy with the advent
of the south-west monsoon, and carting cargoes of slaves over to Oman
and the Persian Gulf--that is, when they saw a chance and none of our
men-of-war were on the spot to stop them!

In obedience to these instructions, therefore, we steamed steadily
onwards through the Straits of Bab-el-Mandeb, and, making a wide stretch
across the Gulf of Aden to take advantage of the current, steered
straight for our appointed rendezvous.

Here, finding no one to meet us, nor hearing any news of import to alter
our programme, Captain Hankey hauled up for Cape Guardafui, intending
then to beat down the Somali coast as he had been directed.

Seeing the funnels of a steamer awash off Binna, we put in nearer to the
shore, the steam cutter being piped away to examine the wreck, which was
too close in to the rocks for the _Mermaid_ to approach her with safety.

There was no trace of any one living on board, though she had evidently
been only recently abandoned, various articles lying about on the deck
aft, w