Was this the truth? I had strong reasons for doubting it. After all, what did it matter? [Illustration: Going aboard the _Halbrane_.] Captain Len Guy came on deck immediately after my arrival; this was not surprising, except for the fact that he did not appear to remark my presence. Atkins then approached the captain and said in a pleasant tone,-- "We shall meet next year!" "If it please God, Atkins." They shook hands. Then the boatswain took a hearty leave of the innkeeper, and was rowed back to the quay. Before dark the white summits of Table Mount and Havergal, which rise, the former to two, the other to three thousand feet above the level of the sea, had disappeared from our view. (1) Thomas D'Arcy McGee. (J.V.) CHAPTER IV. FROM THE KERGUELEN ISLES TO PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND. Never did a voyage begin more prosperously, or a passenger start in better spirits. The interior of the _Halbrane_ corresponded with its exterior. Nothing could exceed the perfect order, the Dutch cleanliness of the vessel. The captain's cabin, and that of the lieutenant, one on the port, the other on the starboard side, were fitted up with a narrow berth, a cupboard anything but capacious, an arm-chair, a fixed table, a lamp hung from the ceiling, various nautical instruments, a barometer, a thermometer, a chronometer, and a sextant in its oaken box. One of the two other cabins was prepared to receive me. It was eight feet in length, five in breadth. I was accustomed to the exigencies of sea life, and could do with its narrow proportions, also with its furniture--a table, a cupboard, a cane-bottomed arm-chair, a washing-stand on an iron pedestal, and a berth to which a less accommodating passenger would doubtless have objected. The passage would be a short one, however, so I took possession of that cabin, which I was to occupy for only four, or at the worst five weeks, with entire content. The eight men who composed the crew were named respectively Martin Holt, sailing-master; Hardy, Rogers, Drap, Francis, Gratian, Burg, and Stern--sailors all between twenty-five and thirty-five years old--all Englishmen, well trained, and remarkably well disciplined by a hand of iron. Let me set it down here at the beginning, the exceptionally able man whom they all obeyed at a word, a gesture, was not the captain of the _Halbrane_; that man was the second officer, James West, who was then thirty-two years of age.