e main yard. We shall have to hoist the lady
in, and perhaps the Dom too, like a bale of cotton."

"Ay, ay, sir," replied the mate.

"Make sail, Mr Blount; brace up the headyards. Let me know when you
are ready."

Ten minutes later the passengers were on board, and Dom Assevedo's barge
veered astern.

"It's rather hard I can't speak to my lady passenger," said Weber, as he
went down below with the party.

"Tell him I can understand English, though I am afraid to speak it,"
said Isabel in French to Hughes, who was by her side.

"Ay, ay, my pretty one, we'll soon take the shame-faced-ness out of you;
nothing like blue water for doing that. Well, you tell the Dom that
I'll send all his traps below. Senhor Assevedo, I can't give you much
law," said the old seaman, in his rough hearty tones, as he turned to
return to his post. "Steward, show the lady her berth. Look alive,
man," he continued, calling down the hatchway.

The brig was now riding at single anchor, the headyards braced up one
way, her afteryards the other, her sails flapping heavily.

"Heave away, my lads, heave away with a will," shouted Weber, the moment
his foot touched the quarter-deck, and the remaining anchor was soon
hove up, and properly stowed away on board. "Brace round the headyards.
Let fall the fore course. Take a pull at the bowlines, Mr Blount.
Touch her with the wheel, Adams, she will come up a couple of points
yet," were the rapid words of command, and the "Halcyon" moved through
the water on a taut bowline, heading nearly her course.

"A pleasant voyage to you," said Dom Assevedo, as he bent over Isabel's
hand in the cabin.

"Below there!" came in the captain's rough tones, "tell the Senhor
Assevedo that if he don't want to see the Cape, he had better get on
board his barge. The tow-rope won't hold on long, I'm thinking."

Heartily shaking hands with all, the Portuguese gentleman, whose name
and kindly nature are well known to men of every nation trading on the
Zambesi, stepped over the side, the boat's painter was cast off, a last
good bye shouted in Weber's stentorian voice, and the "Halcyon," with
all sail set, to her royals, was soon standing off the bar, the bubbles
flying past her rounded counter, as she slipped through the water at the
rate of sonde six knots an hour.

Towards sunset the wind fell, and the brig began to lose her way. The
stars came out shining through a thin haze, and sail after sail flapped
agai