However, she never found Roderic other than a gentleman, and he would always move his seat in order that the fragrant smoke might not blow across her sacred person, so that in this way he made a firm friend of the old maid. When nightfall came they took their last look at old Ireland's green hills, for unless all calculations failed they would be out on the broad Atlantic by daylight, headed for the West Indies. Roderic had by this time thrown off the reserve that weighed down his spirits at first and become his own sociable self, ready to enter into any game that promised relaxation and sport. The shore line faded as the glow left the western sky, and presently only lights upon the hills told how near they were to the Irish coast. Thus the voyage was begun, that would bring much of success or grief to his fortunes--before him like a will-o'-the-wisp flitted the blockade runner, having on board the beautiful maid of San Juan--and the game was transferred from the Old to the New World. CHAPTER X. FOR ONE NIGHT AT THE AZORES. In heading for the Antilles there were several routes which they could take. It was possible to make a bee line almost due south-west, stopping at the Azores on the way; or they could follow the plan adopted by Spain in sending her ships of war across, heading almost due south to the Canary islands, then on nearly the same course until the Cape Verdes were reached, after which a run to the west would bring them to the Porto Rico coast. Roderic was much interested in this matter and held many consultations with the old captain as to what line he had marked out. Perhaps--for somehow our purely selfish personal ends will crop up despite us--he was speculating as to what chances they had of overtaking the blockade runner, should they have decided upon the same course. There are always so many possibilities governing these things. Though the ocean appears limitless, there are times when people come together in a most remarkable manner. Fate takes a hand in many a game and this seemingly boundless sea becomes as a veritable mill pond, where boys float their rafts and have collisions. Roderic learned that their course was to be laid by way of the Azores, those sentinels of the vasty deep that lie far out in midocean between the two warring countries, the United States and Spain. He spent a portion of the first morning afloat in examining the vessel from keel to truck so to speak, and was loud in his praise of her stanch abilities. She had been built on the Clyde, and was of course put together to stay--those canny Scots have a faculty for making timbers hold together through hurricane blows and all manner of extreme usage, that is unexcelled in any other part of the world, so that the very name carries weight; as does the Belfast engine, some of which on old White Star liners have done noble duty a score and a half of years.