Though the _Kansas_ was not a fast ship, she could have made the entrance to the Straits on the evening of the fourth day were not Captain Courtenay wishful to navigate the most dangerous part of the narrows by daylight. His intent, therefore, was to pick up the Evangelistas light about midnight, and then crack ahead at fourteen knots, so as to be off Felix Point on Desolation Island by dawn. This was not only a prudent and seamanlike course but it would conduce to the comfort of the passengers. The ship was now running into a stiff gale. Each hour the sea became heavier, and even the eight thousand tons of the _Kansas_ felt the impact of the giant rollers on her starboard bow. Dinner, therefore, promised to be a meal of much discomfort, cheered only by the knowledge that as soon as the vessel reached the lee of Desolation Island the giant waves of the Pacific would lose their power, and all on board would enjoy a quiet night’s rest. There were no absentees at the table. Dr. Christobal strove to enliven the others with the promise of peace ere many hours had passed. “Pay no heed to those fellows!” he cried, as the ship quivered under the blow of a heavy sea, and they heard the thud of many tons of water breaking over the bows and fore hatch, while the defeated monster washed the tightly screwed ports with a venomous swish. “They cannot harm us now. Let us rather thank kindly Providence which provided Magellan’s water-way; think what it would mean were we compelled to weather the Cape.” “I am beginning to catch on to the reasonableness of that toast of yours, doctor,” said one of the mining engineers, a young American. “I happen to be a tee-totaler, but I don’t mind opening a bottle of the best for the general welfare when we shove our nose past the Cape of the large number of young and unprotected females.” Christobal raised his hand. “All in good time,” he said. “Never halloo for the prairie until you are clear of the forest. If the wind remains in its present quarter, we are fortunate. Should it happen to veer round to the eastward, and you see the rocks of Tierra del Fuego lashed by the choppy sea that can run even through a land-locked channel, you will be ready to open two bottles as a thanks-offering. Is this your first trip round by the south?” “Yes, I crossed by way of Panama. Guess a mule-track over the Sierras is a heap better than the Pacific in a gale. Jee-whizz!” A spiteful sea sprang at the _Kansas_ and shook her from stem to stern. The ship groaned and creaked as though she were in pain; she staggered an instant, and then swung irresistibly forward with a fierce plunge that made the plates dance and cutlery rattle in the fiddles. “I suppose we must endure five hours of this,” said Elsie, bravely. “I don’t like it. Why does not Captain Courtenay, or even Mr. Boyle, put in an appearance? I have hardly seen either of them since the day I came aboard.”