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Towards noon, on the same day, we passed by the island of Tristan da Cunha, the land bearing on our port quarter sou'-west by south when seen; and, on the thirteenth day after turning our backs on the Martin Vas Rocks, we crossed the meridian of Greenwich in latitude 46 degrees 58 minutes south, steering almost due east so as to weather the Cape of Good Hope.
"I will attend to your orders, sir. By George, those Arabs will have to be precious sharp if they manage to steal back past us to their haunts!" So saying, Mr Gresham went down the side, without any further palaver; and, when he was seated in the sternsheets, the pinnace went off in a bee-line to the sou'-west in the teeth of the monsoon, which was beginning to blow now pretty briskly.
It was nearly sundown when Mark awoke with a start from an uneasy dream, in which he fancied that he had been neglecting his duty. Tom Fillot was standing over him, and the lad's first words were, "What's the matter?" Tom Fillot hastened to reply. "Nothing, sir, I've been all round. Prisoners safe, rations been issued, blacks all quiet, shore three miles off, and nice wind from the sou'-west."
Ahead and to starboard is the West Hohenhörn, curling round to the sou'-west for all the world like a stone pier. You can hear the surf battering on its outside over to the north. That's where I was nearly wrecked that day, and the little channel I stumbled into must be quite near us somewhere.
Within a few minutes H.M.A.S. Sydney set a definite course, and with a foaming wake and a trail of heavy smoke, went off at full speed to the sou'-west. Mac went below for breakfast in the steamy saloon. Word went round that the Emden was at the bottom of the business; and men gathered in groups, talking with animation, and gazing occasionally towards the south-west.
He paused a moment for effect, before he went on: "They were down in the sou'-west country, which they little knew; and were anighing Winchester city, or should 'a' been. But they got muzzed on the ungodly downs, and before they guessed, they was off the track. My good hat! there they was, as lost in the snow as three nutshells a-sinkin' into a hasty pudden.
Our beautiful summer weather was breaking up; high nor'-westers had blown down the gorges for days, and now a cold wet gale was coming up in heavy banks of fleecy clouds from the sou'-west. Everything looked cold and wretched out of doors, but the sheep-farmers were thankful and pleased.
This was a mark of favour he showed to few. Detricand bowed, accepted, and took a pinch. "I must be going," he said. At eight o'clock the next morning, Guida and her fellow-voyagers, bound for the Ecrehos Rocks, had caught the first ebb of the tide, and with a fair wind from the sou'-west had skirted the coast, ridden lightly over the Banc des Violets, and shaped their course nor'-east.
The fog's going, and there's a breeze from the sou'-west. 'Now? I protested. 'Why, it'll mean sailing all night, won't it? 'Oh, no, said Davies. 'Not with luck. 'Why, it's dark at seven! 'Yes, but it's only twenty-five miles. I know it's not exactly a fair wind, but we shall lie closehauled most of the way. The glass is falling, and we ought to take this chance.
"Audierne Bay! and the wind blowing half a gale from the sou'-west!" ejaculated the skipper, with a note of something approaching to dismay. "Yes, sir, Audierne Bay," repeated the master. "It is only there that we could possibly have come within sight of the land at this hour of the day. Perhaps you would like me to bring up the chart, Captain Vavassour." "Yes; pray do so," answered the skipper.
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