n; "but is _he_ on board?"

"_He_ was, without doubt, but he's not now," answered Johnson, showing
the deck cleared of the crowd.

"Here, Captain! Captain!" shouted the doctor, trying to take the
letter from the dog, who kept springing away from him. He seemed to
want to give the letter to Shandon himself.

"Here, Captain!" he said.

The dog went up to him; Shandon took the letter without difficulty,
and then Captain barked sharply three times, amid the profound silence
which prevailed on board the ship and along the quay.

Shandon held the letter in his hand, without opening it.

"Read it, read it!" cried the doctor. Shandon looked at it. The
address, without date or place, ran simply,--"Commander Richard
Shandon, on board the brig _Forward_."

Shandon opened the letter and read:--

You will sail towards Cape Farewell. You will reach it April 20. If
the captain does not appear on board, you will pass through Davis
Strait and go up Baffin's Bay as far as Melville Sound.

K. Z.,
_Captain of the Forward_.

Shandon folded carefully this brief letter, put it in his pocket, and
gave the order to cast off. His voice, which arose alone above the
roaring of the wind, sounded very solemn.

Soon the _Forward_ had left the docks, and under the care of a pilot,
whose boat followed at a distance, put out into the stream. The crowd
hastened to the outer quay by the Victoria Docks to get a last look at
the strange vessel. The two topsails, the foresail, and staysail were
soon set, and under this canvas the _Forward_, which well deserved its
name, after rounding Birkenhead Point, sailed away into the Irish Sea.

CHAPTER V.
AT SEA.

The wind, which was uncertain, although in general favorable, was
blowing in genuine April squalls. The _Forward_ sailed rapidly, and
its screw, as yet unused, did not delay its progress. Towards three
o'clock they met the steamer which plies between Liverpool and the
Isle of Man, and which carries the three legs of Sicily on its
paddle-boxes. Her captain hailed them, and this was the last good-by
to the crew of the _Forward_.

At five o'clock the pilot resigned the charge of the ship to Richard
Shandon, and sailed away in his boat, which soon disappeared from
sight in the southwest.

Towards evening the brig doubled the Calf of Man, at the southern
extremity of the island of that name. During the night the sea was
very high; the _Forward_ rode the waves very well, however, a