The chest itself was retained to serve as a useful "locker."

The fourth day being spent in such fashion, the Catamarans retired to
rest,--little William, at the request of the sailor, repeating the
Lord's Prayer, and ending it, by the dictation of the latter, with a
short petition for a wind that would waft them to the westward!

It seemed as if that simple petition had been heard and granted. As the
sun once more rose over the ocean, its glossy surface became broken into
tiny corrugations by a breeze blowing as if from the sun himself. The
sail was run up the slippery mast; it was tightly sheeted home; and the
_Catamaran_, rushing rapidly through the water, soon cleared herself
from that fatal spot where the slaver had perished.

"Westward ho!" cried Ben Brace, as he saw the sail swell out, and the
craft, the product of his own skill, walking proudly away through the
water like a "thing of life."

"Westward ho!" simultaneously echoed Snowball and Little William; while
the eyes of Lilly Lalee sparkled with joy, as she beheld the
enthusiastic bearing of her companions.

CHAPTER TWENTY SIX.

LITTLE WILLIAM AND LILLY LALEE.

The wind was favourable in more senses than one. Besides blowing in the
desired direction, it kept steady and continuous,--never rising above a
gentle breeze, nor again returning to that calm from which they had just
escaped, and the recurrence of which, to the captain of the _Catamaran_,
would have been almost as unwelcome as a gale.

It was just the sort of wind for the trial of a new craft--barely
ruffling the surface of the sea, and yet filling the sail till its sheet
was as taut as a bow-string. As it blew direct from the east, that part
of the _Catamaran_ which Ben had christened her _head_ was pointed due
westward; and to hinder the craft from veering round, or luffing back
into the eye of the wind, her builders had constructed a steering
apparatus at the stern. It was simply a very large oar,--one that had
appertained to the longboat of the _Pandora_,--placed fore and aft
across the swell of the stern water-cask. It was held in that position
by ropes attaching it to the cask, at the same time that they permitted
it to play through the water, and perform the office of a rudder. By
means of this simple contrivance,--which had been rigged before starting
on her cruise,--the _Catamaran_ could be steered to any point of the
compass, and kept either before the wind, or luffed