to go on and conquer if I can. Thank
God for the treasure that has been given me! And may God comfort her and
comfort brave and true Jordan!"

CHAPTER XX.

THE OCCIDENT AND THE ORIENT MEET.

The ship was twenty-four days in reaching Melbourne. It caught a gale
crossing the stormy Bight, and for two days no progress was made. It was
all that the men in charge could do to hold the plunging craft up into
the face of the storm and meet the big seas as they rolled, furious, up
against her stem. But the winds were laid at last, the ship was put upon
her course and her natural speed resumed. On the afternoon of the
twenty-fourth day the ship passed between the heads of Port Philip, and
two hours later came to anchor before Sandridge, three miles below
Melbourne. Going ashore, Sedgwick cabled to his wife his arrival on his
way to San Francisco, "as first letters from Port Natal would explain,"
and added: "Hope to be with you in one hundred days. Write, care
Occidental Hotel, San Francisco." Then he took the night train for
Sidney, and arrived there the next night about nine o'clock.

Going to a hotel, he found that the first steamer for San Francisco would
sail on the next day but one.

He then sought his first sleep in a comfortable house, with modern
improvements, that he had found since he left London.

Next morning he went early and secured transportation on the steamer,
then returned and wrote a long letter to his girl-bride; then engaging a
rig took in as much of Sidney as he could. Next morning he cabled his
wife that he was just going to sea again, and boarded the steamer early.
The ship sailed promptly at midday, and as it passed out of the
beautiful harbor the islands and shores beyond were just putting on the
vestments of spring. Sedgwick had never before seen spring approaching in
October; never before had he heard the love-calls of mating birds at that
season, and apparently had never before realized so keenly that he was on
the other side of the world from those whom he loved and knew. After
dinner he went on deck. He knew no one on board, and he was nearer being
homesick than he had ever been before. It was a balmy night. The sea was
tumbling a little from the effects of a far-off storm, but the ship was
riding the waves superbly and making rapid progress, and the stars were
all out and sweeping grandly on in their never-ending, stately
processions.

In the midst of his thoughts, when he was fast