ater I was lucky enough to get a ship bound for
the Cape, and there shifted into another for England. So that, young
gentlemen, was the second time as I was off the books of Godstone &
Son."

"Thank you very much, Joe. Some day you must give us some more yarns
about it, and tell us something of your life in the village and your
journey."

"I will think it over, Master Jim. It is a long time ago now, for I was
not above six-and-twenty when it happened. But I will think it over, and
see if I can call back something worth telling."

From that time onwards the boys had no reason to complain of dulness.

If the old man's memory ever played him false, his imagination never
failed him. Story followed story in almost unbroken sequence, so that
between old Joe's yarns and the ordinary duties of sea life the time
passed swiftly and pleasantly. After rounding the Cape they had a spell
of fine weather, until one morning when Jack came on deck he saw land
away on the port beam.

"There is Ceylon," Jim Tucker said.

"I should like to land and have a day's ramble on shore there, Jim.
There would be something to see there with all that rich vegetation. A
very different thing from the sands of Egypt!"

"Yes, and all sorts of adventures, Jack. There are snakes and elephants
and all sorts of things."

"I certainly should not care to meet snakes, Jim, and I don't know that
I should like wild elephants. Still, I should like a ramble on shore. I
suppose there is no chance of our getting nearer to the land."

"Not a bit, Jack. I heard Mr. Hoare tell Arthur that it was very seldom
we passed within sight of the island at all. Sailors are not fond of
land except when they are actually going to make a port. The further
they keep away from it the better they are pleased."

"Such splendid weather as this I should have thought it would have made
no difference," Jack said. "I should be glad if we were going to coast
up the whole way. Why, we have had nothing but a gentle regular wind
ever since that storm off the Cape."

"Yes, but it may not last all the way, Jack," Mr. Timmins, as he walked
past and overheard the lad's words, said. "There is no place in the
world where they have more furious cyclones than in the Bay of Bengal.
Happily they don't come very often. Perhaps there is only one really
very bad one in four or five years; but when there is one the
destruction is awful. Islands are submerged, and sometimes, hundreds of
square mi