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To approach on the weather side was impossible. I therefore directed Dick to follow me, and pulled away to the south'ard, hoping to get round it, as I did not believe that it extended many miles in that direction.
"It would be difficult to prevent it remaining where it is now. Besides, I passed my word, you know, and that cannot be broken. Come, sit down. I'm thankful your house was so considerate as to spare my smoking-box, though it has given it a shove of a few feet to the south'ard.
"But you shall hear the whole story, such as 'tis. Maybe you happen to remember the chap as bought me a tall, thin feller, with a nose like the beak of an eagle, and a wicked look in his glittering black eyes. Well, as soon as this here Don Christoval that was his name as soon as he'd bought all the slaves he wanted, we was all chained together, and started on a march to the south'ard.
"We heard tell o' Dick Lynch a-slippin' away to the south'ard jist this minute from little Patsy Burke. Drunk as a bo's'un he was, wid his old swilin'-gun on his shoulder an' the divil's own flare in the eyes o' him. So we hauled out too, skipper, intendin' to catch him afore he come up wid yerself if the saints would give us the luck."
"Do you see a high point to the south'ard?" asked Harry. "Yes, sir," answered Paul. "And it seems to me that there's an opening in the cliffs." "That must be the west entrance to the southern harbour of the Auckland Islands," said Harry. "I little expected to make such a run. Providence has guided us, not my navigation." Every one in the launch was soon eagerly looking out towards the land.
She bain't so far to the south'ard, neither." "Sure, then, the tide bes a-pullin' on her an' will drag her in, lads," remarked an old man, with a white beard that reached half-way down his breast. "What d'ye make o' her, Barney Keen?" asked the skipper of the old man. "Well, skipper, I'll tell 'e what I makes o' her.
"We'll 'ave it calm till mebbe five o'clock, then it'll blow from the south'ard. That's down the course. But we won't 'ave no rain to-day." The Captain of the Forecastle, who read his "Old Moore's Almanac," and was susceptible to signs and portents, confirmed the optimism of the Quartermaster. "I 'ad a dream last night," he said.
"Fleet of war-balloons coming up from the south'ard, sir. You can just see 'em, sir, coming on in line under that long bank of cloud." The captain of the Ithuriel took the night-glasses, and looked eagerly in the direction pointed out by his keen-eyed coxswain.
"You may, as long as you like to keep awake; but you must take care not to topple overboard." Dick and I for some time walked the deck, believing that we were keeping watch, and, of course, looking out on every side. "The wind's drawing more round to the south'ard," I heard Truck remark. "If we go about, we shall soon catch sight of the Owers, and one more tack will take us into Saint Helen's."
"Well, it's this way," said Jarrow, after a thoughtful pause. "The old man didn't give 'em the right position. He said he'd piled up near one of the Sisters, just to the south'ard of the Little Sister, to be exact. But that's more'n sixty miles north of where the Wetherall struck. Ye see, the old man didn't want nobody to find the island if he couldn't go himself. But he's all right now."
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