a force that shook her from stem to
stern, while the wind played weird tunes overhead.

"We will keep her on the course she is running a half hour," determined
the captain. By that time the storm had about blown out, and when the
command was turned over to the mate the ship's regular course was
resumed.

"I think," began the captain, the next morning when the boys came on
deck, "that we have seen the last of the Marjorie."

"I hope so," replied the professor, who was scanning the horizon with a
glass. "It is almost too good to be true, but they do not seem to be in
sight."

It was a beautifully clear day after the storm. The wind had blown all
the clouds away, and the sky was a deep transparent blue. The air was
crisp, and for the latitude, cool, and the sea rose and fell in long
broken swells through which the yacht was racing at the rate of a dozen
knots. They were alone on the vast expanse of water; no other vessel was
in sight, although way to the southwest a faint trail-like smoke showed
on the horizon against the deep blue of the sky.

"Is that the Marjorie off there, do you think?" asked Tom.

"Cannot say, I'm sure," replied the captain. "But we will just hold to
our course and see if she raises. I doubt if they see us, and the
Marjorie will have a hunt to pick us up again."

"I can't see anything of them," said the captain, an hour later,
sweeping the horizon with his glass. "We can lay over course direct for
the island of Bohoola."

Relieved of the shadow of impending trouble which the persistent
trailing of the yacht by the mysterious vessel had cast over them, the
spirits of all rose perceptibly and as nothing was seen of her for the
next two or three days some began to think that it was only a coincident
of their sailing upon the same course, and that their fears had been
unfounded.

Several days of steady progress under full spread of sail carried the
voyager on beyond the equator. No incident worthy of note transpired.
There was, of course, a constantly augmented desire for the sight of
land and for the varieties and delicacies of food denied them. Hard tack
and salt fish become very monotonous if too long persisted in.

Hopes of an early termination of the journey were beginning to run high
when, as the captain determined that they had arrived at a point
estimated to be less than three days from their destination. The other
boys were now told the story of the chart then in Jim's possession, a