athwart the stars, so that there
was plenty of light to see by; and it was as intoxicating as wine to
merely stand abaft there, as I did, feeling the strong rush of the wind
past me, and drinking in its invigorating freshness and coolness, as the
deck heaved and plunged beneath my feet, and the bending masts swayed
and reeled to and fro, the trucks sweeping long arcs among the dancing
stars, and the wind piping high and shrill through the rigging, as the
schooner leaped and plunged irresistibly forward, with a storm of spray
flashing in over her weather cat-head and blowing aft as far as the
mainmast at every buoyant upward leap of her to meet the sea, while a
whole Niagara of hissing foam--with an under-stratum of whirling clouds
of lambent green sea-fire--went swirling past the lee rail at a speed
that made one giddy to look at. Five bells in the first watch saw us
fairly abreast at Morant Point, and then, as the night was clear and the
breeze steady, I went below and turned in.

Nothing of any importance occurred during the next few days, and,
carrying on upon the schooner to the last stitch that she could stagger
under, we arrived off the northern extremity of the island of Martinique
exactly at midnight on the fifth night after leaving Port Royal. I
considered that we had now reached our cruising-ground, and that there
was consequently no need for any further hurry. We therefore shortened
sail to double-reefed mainsail, fore staysail, and jib,--furling all our
square canvas,--and leisurely passed through the channel between
Martinique and Dominica until we were some sixty miles to windward of
both islands, when we headed the little hooker to the northward and
_ratched_ as far as the latitude of Antigua, then heaving about and
returning over the same ground again.

The first two days of our cruising proved utterly barren of results, but
the time was by no means wasted, for, having sedulously exercised the
crew in the working of the guns and in cutlass drill every day during
our passage across from Port Royal, I now rigged up a floating target
and gave them a little firing practice, taking care to have a man on the
royal yard to give us timely notice of the appearance of any sail that
perchance might be frightened away by the sound of firing; and I was
soon gratified at the discovery that I numbered among my crew several
very fairly clever marksmen.

It was within a few minutes of sunset, on the evening of the t