w and aloft,
and slowly but surely making an offing and reaching out to sea.

We continued on the same tack until we had weathered the Nab Lightship,
some ten miles out, when, being favoured with a "sojer's wind," fair
both ways, we trimmed sails again and braced the yards up, wearing ship
and gradually altering course from a nearly due east direction to one
"west-half-south," fetching a compass down Channel.

We passed on our starboard hand within easy cannon shot of the Isle of
Wight, whose bold, projecting headlands and curving bays of white and
yellow sand we opened in turn every minute, with their purple hills
beyond and deep-shadowed valleys lit up ever and anon by a gleam of
sunshine as we sailed gaily on; the blue sky above our heads seeming in
the clear atmosphere to recede further and further back into the
immensity of space as we proceeded while the blue water around us became
bluer and, more intense in tone, except where here and there the crest
of a breaking wave flecked it with foam.

At Seven Bells, when the watch was set, we had given the snub-nosed
Dunose the go-by and were heading for Saint Catherine's Point, going
about eight knots under all plain sail, the wind freshening as we drew
away from under the lee of the land, and the ship getting livelier.

Just as I was looking over the side and noting this fact, while watching
the gull's circling in our wake, uttering their plaintive screams at
intervals that sounded like the ghost cries of drowned sailors buried
beneath the sea, Mr Quadrant, the master, who was on the poop, sextant
in hand, reported it was twelve o'clock; whereupon, the commander
telling him to "make it so," Eight Bells was struck, the men being piped
to dinner immediately afterwards in obedience to another order from
headquarters aft.

Not being wanted any longer on deck, and the crisp, bracing sea air
giving me a good appetite, I hurried down the hatchway to join my
messmates in the gunroom, mindful by my morning's experiences of the
disadvantage of being late for meals.

Quick as I was, I found the majority of the other fellows not on duty
had already forestalled me, chief among these early birds being my chum,
Tom Mills.

This young gentleman, all in his glory, was lording it over poor Dobb's,
the long-suffering steward, at a fine rate, I noticed, making Mr
Stormcock waxy with his remarks about the fare.

This, really, was not at all bad in quality nor scanty in quantity, as