it's another
thing."

"If you think so badly of it," persisted Ralph, "why did you ship, Mr.
Duff?"

"Because, like most of the others, I went it blind for the sake of high
wages. I had an idea we were on a smuggling trip. I suppose you were
too green to know anything."

"I left everything to Captain Gary. But I say, Mr. Duff, I think with
you that it is a low, mean business."

"H-s-s-h!" The mate made a warning gesture and turned away, just as
Mr. Rucker thrust his bushy beard down the fore hatch, preceded by his
burly legs and body.

The first officer looked sharply at Ralph as the boy lay in his
hammock, which he had at last slung.

"You'll report for duty in the cabin tomorrow, my lad," said he.
"Captain's orders. There won't be much shirking on this ship, whether
or no."

After the storm, the wind and weather remained fair for many days,
during which the Wanderer (as she was now called) glided into the
tropics, and justified her fame on the score of speed.

One day a cry of "Land ho!" was raised. Half an hour later the
irregular heights of the Cape Verde Islands began to be visible from
the deck. But the schooner bore away to the southeast and no close
view was obtained.

It was a lonely voyage. Scarcely any vessels were passed, and the
captain avoided these in so far as he could. It was his policy to
follow a route as little traveled as possible.

The glaring sun, bright skies, and even trade winds of these regions
were like a new world to Ralph. At night the extreme brilliancy of the
stars, framed in new and strange constellations, and the vivid play of
phosphorescent waves, kept him on deck with Mr. Duff at times for hours.

These two, though so widely separated by rank, were congenial in a
furtive way. Perhaps the mutual knowledge that both so heartily
disapproved of the object of the voyage, was a subtle link between them.

Though awkward enough at first, Ralph persevered so faithfully in
acquiring a knowledge of his new duties, that he slowly won the
approval of every one on board, unless it might have been the captain.
Gary preserved a sphinx-like attitude, never sparing the boy, never
praising him, nor manifesting by any sign an atom of that feminine
graciousness of manner that had on shore first won the lad over.

But Ralph's growing proficiency in a seaman's tasks was such, that on
Rucker's advice, he was put before the mast altogether, after one of
the sailors had broken seve