The captain came on board in the evening, having dined with the admiral, and left directions for having all ready for unmooring and heaving short at daylight. The signal was made from the frigate at sunrise, and before twelve o'clock we were all under weigh, and running past St. Helen's with a favourable wind. Our force consisted of the _Acasta_ frigate, the _Isis_ ship, sloop, mounting twenty guns, the _Reindeer_, eighteen, and our own brig. The convoy amounted to nearly two hundred. Although the wind was fair, and the water smooth, we were more than a week before we made Anholt light, owing to the bad sailing and inattention of many of the vessels belonging to the convoy. We were constantly employed repeating signals, firing guns, and often sent back to tow up the sternmost vessels. At last we passed the Anholt light, with a light breeze; and the next morning, the mainland was to be distinguished on both bows. CHAPTER FIFTY EIGHT. HOW WE PASSED THE SOUND, AND WHAT PASSED IN THE SOUND--THE CAPTAIN OVERHEARS AGAIN A CONVERSATION BETWEEN SWINBURNE AND ME. I was on the signal chest abaft, counting the convoy, when Swinburne came up to me. "Have you been here before, with a convoy, Swinburne?" "To be sure I have; and it's sharp work that I've seen here, Mr Simple. Work, that I've an idea our captain won't have much stomach for." "Swinburne, I beg you will keep your thoughts relative to the captain to yourself; recollect the last time. It is my duty not to listen to them." "And I should rather think, to report them also, Mr Simple," said Captain Hawkins, who had crept up to us, and overheard our conversation. "In this instance there is no occasion for my reporting them, sir," replied I, "for you have heard what has passed." "I have, sir," replied he; "and I shall not forget the conversation." I turned forward. Swinburne had made his retreat the moment that he heard the voice of the captain. "How many sails are there in sight, sir?" inquired the captain. "One hundred and sixty-three, sir," replied I. "Signal to convoy to close from the _Acasta_," reported the midshipman of the watch. We repeated it, and the captain descended to his cabin. We were then running about four miles an hour, the water very smooth, and Anholt lighthouse hardly visible on deck, bearing N.N.W. about twenty miles. In fact, we were near the entrance of the Sound, which, the reader may be aware, is a narrow passage leading into the Baltic Sea.