a large spread of sail came skimming
into the little bay, heading for the private wharf of the hotel at a
rapid clip. Colin held his breath as the craft came rushing in, for the
inlet was not much wider than twice the length of the boat and it seemed
certain that the vessel would crash full upon the rocks not twenty feet
beyond the wharf. But at the very last second the tiller was put over,
the sail jibed, and as gently as though she had crept up in a calm, the
_Early Bird_ glided up beside the wharf, her bowsprit narrowly missing
the bushes on the bank as she turned.

"You sure can handle a boat!" cried Colin admiringly.

The owner of the vessel, a young colored man, of good address and with a
clever face, showed his white teeth in a gratified smile as he replied:

"Yas, sah, Ah've sailed a boat roun' the harbor quite a good deal."

"It looked that time as though you were going to be smashed up, sure."

"Ah nevah even scraped the paint of a boat in ten yeahs o' sailin',
sah," the colored boatman answered, "an' thar's lots o' shoals, too."

"It looks as if she were resting on the bottom now!" the boy said.

"No, sah," was the confident reply, "the tide's full in an' Ah knows
this whahf right well. Thar's two feet of wateh under her, right now."

Early Bird--for both boatman and boat answered to the same name--deftly
took aboard the glasses and other special material that had been
prepared, not forgetting a large lunch basket that had been sent down
from the hotel, and then he pushed off into the clear and shining water.
The early morning breeze laid the little craft over on her side but she
had a good pair of heels and in a few minutes the party was well on its
way across Grassy Bay.

"Where are we going?" asked Colin.

Early Bird pointed beyond a group of small islands to where there seemed
to be a depression in the land.

"Thar's a channel, sah," he said, "right in between those two islands.
Thar's a swing bridge across, but the keepeh is always on the lookout
and we can go right through."

A half hour's sail brought them to the gap between the islands. Though
the bridge was shut Early Bird steered confidently straight for the
center, and it swung just in time, the boat shooting by with
undiminished speed and rounding a point to the open water beyond. Before
them stretched an unbroken vista of ocean.

"The next land south of you, Colin," remarked the curator, "is
Antarctica."

Colin thought for a mome