The Argosy, Vol. XXIV, No. 1 — page 134: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

134 THE MUTINY ON THE FLYING CLOUD. occupied for any of them to go out for several days past, the skipper thought he would celebrate so momentous an occasion as the laying of the keel by a few hours’ fishing upon the reef. Accordingly, as the evening meal was approaching completion, he announced his intention, at the same time inquiring’ if any of the others felt disposed to join him. All, however, confessed themselves to be too tired to find pleasure in anything short of a good night’s rest, and the skipper there- fore departed alone, Henderson calling out after him as he went: ~ Don’t go to sleep and fall overboard, captain; and keep a sharp eye upon the weather. To my mind the wind seems inclined to drop, and if it does it will probably shift. And I suppose you have noticed that heavy cloud bank working up there to the westward?” ; ‘““Ay, ay, I’ve noticed it,’’ answered the skipper good humoredly, but slightly derisive at what he considered the presumption of a landsman in thinking it necessary to caution him about the weather. ‘‘ Another thunder- storm, I take it—they always work up against the wind; but I shall be back again and safe in my bunk before it breaks. Good night!” CHAPTER XXIV.—THE CAPTAIN’S DREAM CAPTAIN BLAKE strolled down to the tiny cove in which the punt was moored, cast off the painter, and paddled out to the raft, which rode at a buoy anchored about fifty yards distant from the beach. Arriving alongside the raft he made fast the punt’s painter to the buoy, loosed the craft’s triangular sail, mastheaded the yard by means of a small winch Nicholls had fitted for the purpose, cast off his moorings, and began to work down the stream seaward, the wind being against him. He was not long in reaching the open water, and as he shot out between the two headlands which guarded the mouth of the harbor he noticed with satisfaction that the cloud bank to which Henderson had warningly directed attention had already completely risen above the horizon, and was slowly melting away. . True, the atmosphere was somewhat hazy, and the breeze was less steady than usual; but the general aspect of the sky was promising enough, and if a change of weather was impending it would not, the skipper told himself, occur for several hours yet, or without giving him sufficient war ning to enable him to regain the island in good time. Arrived on the reef—over which, by the way, there was plenty of water, four fathoms being the least the party had ever found upon it—the expectant sportsman anchored, lowered the sail, and threw his lines overboard. The sport, however, was not by any means good that night, for it was fully half an hour before he got a bite; and the interval which followed his first capture was so long that the skipper’s interest waned and his thoughts wandered off—as indeed they very often did—to his ship. He fell to won- dering what had become of her, whether the mutineers had actually gone to the extreme length of carrying into effect their piratical plans, whether Sibyl and Ned were still on board, and, if so, how matters fared with them. Oo "| 0 (0X6) 3) =) Eom