to the saloon
door to report that a small air of wind was coming down from the
eastward; as therefore my business on board the _City of Calcutta_ was
concluded, I prepared to leave the ship. Nothing now remained to be
done but to hand Baker some letters from the _Esmeralda_ to post on his
arrival home--a matter I had almost forgotten in the excitement induced
by the dreadful discovery in which I had participated--and to bid
good-bye to my late guests; which done, I hurried down over the side and
stepped into my gig, glad to be out of a craft on board which such
horrible tragedies had so recently been enacted.

The ship presented a noble picture as we left her there in the swift
gathering dusk of the calm tropical night, her long shapely hull, taunt
spars, and milk-white canvas reflected upon the glassy surface of the
sleeping wave upon which she oscillated ponderously to the long heave of
the almost imperceptible swell; and it was grievous to think that the
man--quite a young man, too, with all his best years apparently before
him--who had been deemed worthy the trust and charge of so fine a
fabric, and of all the costly merchandise that she contained, should
have been so miserably, contemptibly weak as to have allowed himself to
be conquered by the vile demon of drink, and his life brought to so
disastrous and shameful a close. Ah, me! the pity of it; the pity of
it!

The breeze had reached the _Esmeralda_ by the time that the gig arrived
alongside, and the dainty little barque was lying to with her mainyard
aback, waiting for us. She seemed very small in comparison with the
_City of Calcutta_, coming so directly as I had done from the spacious
decks and cabins of the latter; but it was a relief to get away from the
big ship, and the tragedy of which she was the scene; and I was more
than thankful that the breeze had come so opportunely to enable us to
part company with her. The wind--which, after all, was the merest
zephyr--was very light and partial, playing about the surface of the
water around us in occasional cat's-paws, and failing to reach the
barque altogether so long as the fast-fading twilight permitted us to
see her, while, a quarter of a mile to windward and right out to the
horizon, the water was quite blue with ripples. We accordingly braced
sharp up and luffed our way to the spot where the breeze was steady, and
then bore away upon our course, rejoicing; the nimble little barque
getting off her fi