"Poor fellow! he seems a good deal cut up about it," said Mr Meldon, who was a dark, earnest-looking man of three or four-and-thirty. "Yes," said Mr Parkley. "She was to have gone ashore at Plymouth." "Ha?" said Meldon. "Poor young thing. Great trouble about parting from her husband." "Ye-es," said Parkley. Then, to turn the conversation, he said with a smile, "Lucky thing for us bachelors, Mr Meldon. We never have to trouble our heads about the women." "N-no," said the doctor, looking sharply at his companion, with a broad red stain of blood suffusing his cheeks. "Quite a novelty, though, a voyage with ladies on board. He didn't hear me," he continued, as Mr Parkley obeyed a sign from the captain to come and have a look through his glass at the steamer astern. "No, sir, he's gone to have a good look at that steamer, as seems as if she meant to overhaul us," said Sam Oakum; "but I heard you, and you're right." "Let's see, you are the second mate, aren't you, Mr Oakum?" "Sir, to you, I am," said Oakum. "But what do you mean by being right?" said the doctor with a smile. "'Bout having ladies on board, sir. I know I've been voyages before with women aboard twice or three times mayhap, and no good can come of it." "Ah, you're a croaker, I see," said the doctor, nodding and laughing. "Your liver's out of order." "Hope I am, sir; and as to my liver, I don't believe I've got one, leastways I can't say as I knows I've one. Ay, ay, sir, coming." He trotted forward to obey a call from the captain, and more sail was hoisted, the steamer still overhauling them, and both the captain and Mr Parkley watched her intently, fully expecting to find that this was some new trick of the Cuban, but to the satisfaction of all concerned it proved a false alarm, and the schooner continued her way onwards towards the west. It soon became evident, even to the greatest doubter, that the doctor was in the right, and, accepting it as fate that Hester must remain on board, Dutch devoted himself to the preparations for their cruise, rather avoiding the cabins when possible, and dividing his time between reading to the invalid John Studwick, and long talks with old Sam Oakum about the coast and the places where he swore the old plate-ships lay. "Lor' bless you, Mr Pugh, sir, and you, Mr Parkley," Oakum said one day, when Land's End had long been left behind, and all was open water, "I'm as sure of the place as can be. I remember all the bearings, too, so well. Don't you be skeart about that; I'll take you, sure enough." "Well, Oakum, we are going to trust you," said Mr Parkley, "and if you lead us to success you shall not go unrewarded." "I don't want no reward, sir," said the old man gruffly. "If it turns up trumps, you give me a pound or two o' bacco, and I shall be satisfied."