a
good model of a ship or boat. A few days after this I made the
proposition to Martin that he should ship for the remainder of the
voyage, offering him the same pay that I was giving our own carpenter;
and he at once gladly assented. This arrangement, as will be _seen_
later on, was destined to lead to more important results than either of
us at the moment anticipated.

At length, after a phenomenally good passage as far south as the
twenty-eighth parallel, we lost the trades, and immediately picked up a
strong westerly wind, before which we bore away, under every rag we
could spread, to round the Cape. When off Agulhas the wind southed upon
us, and we fell in with the tremendous swell that is almost invariably
met with about this spot. I had passed over the same ground ten times
already--five times outward-bound, and five times on the homeward
passage--and had _always_ found a heavy swell running, but on this last
occasion it was far heavier than I had ever before beheld it. To convey
some idea of the enormous bulk and height of these liquid hills I may
mention that while off the Agulhas Bank--where the swell was by no means
at its highest--we overhauled and passed a barque of about our own size,
at a distance of less than a cable's length, yet so high was the swell
that, when we both settled into the trough, she was completely hidden
from us, to her topmast-heads!

In longitude 26 degrees East, with a moderate breeze from south-east, we
bore away for the Straits of Sunda; and a few days afterwards met with a
piece of exceptional good fortune. It was during the forenoon watch,
the weather being beautifully fine, and a very gentle breeze blowing,
under the influence of which we were slipping through the water at a
speed of about five knots. The watch were busy, in a deliberate
fashion, about various odd jobs on deck and aloft; and the occupants of
the poop were lounging in their deck-chairs, amusing themselves
according to their several fancies. As for me, I was engaged--as was
indeed often the case--in a severe mental effort to find the key to Dick
Saint Leger's cryptogram. The gentle motion, the warm, genial sunshine,
and the soft splash of the water along the bends, with the absence of
any hurried movement on board or sharply spoken orders, seemed to have
wrought in the entire ship, fore and aft, a condition of half-dreamy,
blissful listlessness, from which we were suddenly startled by a man
crying out, f