No one to-day made the least allusion to yesterday’s sinister deed until this evening; Mr. Rarx was as bland as usual, and after supper all that the skipper said was, “They tell me the second mate had a little fun yesterday.” This indifference served to corroborate the bosun’s remark about what he had seen in Yankee ships. I think that the skipper wanted me to express my opinion and then he was going to tell me his in a loud voice before the men; but I asked him if there wasn’t a ship over to leeward, pointing abaft the beam; it served the purpose very well, for he fetched up his lumbering, prehistoric telescope and passed five minutes or so in looking for a vessel which wasn’t there, so that he forgot all about Rarx and the Finn. To our great astonishment we were enabled by a little shift of wind to fetch by the Abrolhos Islands and to keep on, as we were on the port tack. It was a matter of great satisfaction to us all, and it put the captain in quite a radiant humor. The wind has been pretty well from the eastward of late, and even if it hasn’t been very strong, it enabled us for the first time in many days to round in the weather-braces and take advantage of what there was. Last night was exactly like the weather during a summer northeaster on the New England coast, one of those disagreeable spells which occur two or three times in July and August that fill the hearts of the hotel proprietors with dismay. A dense drizzle, increasing at times to heavy showers, prevailed throughout the night, accompanied by a mist which concealed everything one hundred yards away; while at times we had short but severe puffs of wind, for which we had to stow the sky-sails. At 9.30 in the evening a very strong breeze came out of the east; and, increasing, the second mate, whose watch it was, went forward to haul down the jib-topsail. So he left us on the poop in a heavy shower, and in a few minutes we heard some sharp slatting, but paid no attention to it, supposing that the jib-topsail-sheet had got adrift. Presently Mr. Rarx came back breathing heavily, and remarked, “Very funny; I don’t see how that sail could go like that.” “What’s wrong?” I asked. “Wrong? Why, the main-top-gallant-stay-s’l’s clean gone out the bolt-ropes, and in a minute we’ll have the old man up here tellin’ me ’twas my fault.” Sure enough, in a few moments the captain’s bushy face arose through the companion-way, and he said without preliminary, “I suppose that was the main-t’-gallant-stay-s’l that went, eh?” “Yes, sir,” answered Mr. Rarx, meekly, “I was----” “I suppose you were going to say that you was about to haul it down; well, you needn’t bother to explain; if you hadn’t had it too flat ’twouldn’t have went; thirty years ago, men didn’t sign as second mate till they knew how to trim a sail.”