ster Jacob, my first officer, and
Peter Bligh (who came to me because he said I was the only man who kept
him away from the drink) guessed something if they knew little. They
had both served under me in Ruth Bellenden's yacht; neither had
forgotten that Ruth Bellenden's husband sailed eastward for the wedding
trip. If they put their heads together and said that Ruth Bellenden's
affairs and the steam-ship Southern Cross were not to be far apart at
the end of it, I don't blame them. It was my business to hold my tongue
until the land was sighted, and so much I did for Ruth Bellenden's
sake.

Well, it was the third day of May, at four bells in the first dog
watch, when Harry Doe, the boatswain, sighted land on the port-bow, and
came abaft with the other hands to hear what I had got to say to him.
Mr. Jacob was in his bunk then, he being about to take the first watch,
and Peter Bligh, who walked the bridge, had rung down for half-speed by
the time I came out with my glass for the first view of the distant
island. We were then, I must tell you at a rough reckoning, in
longitude 150 east of Greenwich, by about 30 north; and my first
thought was that we might have sighted the Ganges group, as many a ship
sailing from 'Frisco to Japan; but when I had looked at the land a
little while, and especially at a low spur of rocks to the northward, I
knew that this was truly the Ken Archipelago, and that our voyage was
done.

"Lads," I said, "yonder is your port. Good weather and good luck, and
we'll put about for home before three days have passed."

Now, they set up a great cheer at this; and Peter Bligh, whose years go
to fat, wiped his brow like a man who has got rid of a great load and
is very pleased to have done with it.

"Thank you for that," said he. "I hope I do my duty in all weathers,
Mr. Begg, but this sunshine do wear a man sadly. Will you stop her,
sir, or shall we go dead slow?"

"Dead slow, if you please, Mister Pugh," said I; "the chart gives two
thousand fathoms about the reef. We should have water enough, and water
is a good thing, as I believe you know."

"When there's nothing else, I can manage to make shift with it--and
feel a better man, sir," he added, as an after-thought. But I was
already busy with my glass and that was not the hour for light talk.
Yonder upon the port-bow a group of islands shaped on our horizon as
shadows upon a glassy sea. I could espy a considerable cliff-land
rising to the southwa