ds the ship.

"You'll be glad to land, Captain," said a voice by his side, and as he
turned, he saw close to him, leaning over the bulwarks, the
melancholy-looking master of the burned ship.

"Well, yesterday I would have said `Yes,' and somehow to-day I must say
`No'," replied Hughes.

"Ay, ay," struck in Captain Weber, as he passed in his quarter-deck
walk, taking off his seaman's cap and pushing back the long white hair
from his weather-tanned forehead, "you are as much a sailor as you are a
soldier. Well, I shall work the old bark up the coast, trading here and
there, I have still some months to spare, for mine is a three-year
voyage, and if you are for a passage home before we leave, look out for
the `Halcyon.'"

"I'll land here, and work my way to London," said the captain of the
"Argonaut."

"No, no, old fellow, we must not part so, I picked you up floating on a
loose spar, and I am not going to cut you adrift. Take share and share
with me, and our return voyage will be all the merrier."

The old man shook his head, for the loss of his ship and the fearful
fate of his crew, who had perished before his eyes by a death so
terrible and so totally unforeseen, had shaken his intellects, and from
a bold, daring seaman, he had in one night become completely changed.

Captain Weber saw this, and with his usual kindness of heart pitied his
less fortunate brother, as, taking his arm, he led him away, the two
diving below to seek consolation in the seaman's universal panacea--a
glass of grog, leaving Captain Hughes gazing over the sea, and wondering
why he was not pleased to land.

The creaking of the oars in the rowlocks was soon heard, as the
shore-boat, impelled by the efforts of four powerful men, came sweeping
up on the brig's quarter. A rope was hove, and a half-naked Malay
catching at the lee shrouds, as the "Halcyon" heeled over, swung himself
on board, losing as he did so his high conical hat, which, with a scanty
covering round the waist, formed his only clothing.

"Up with the helm, ease off the jib sheets, fill the main-topsail," were
the words of command given the moment the Malay pilot touched the deck
and walked aft. The brig's head paid off, her sails filled, and,
gathering headway, she once more surged through the seas, running slowly
into the bay, and ultimately dropping her anchor not more than fifty
yards from the town, where she was quickly surrounded by a whole fleet
of shore-boats, eage