Meanwhile the question had arisen, "How was the cooking to be done?" and the natural reply to this seemed to be, "Set the darkie to do it." This would have been all very well but for my passengers, who, it occurred to me, might possibly have a prejudice against having their food handled by a black man. I therefore laid the matter before Sir Edgar, who immediately consulted with his wife; and the ultimate result was that one of the maids very good-naturedly undertook the work, with San Domingo as cook's mate, to do all the dirty work, while the other maid volunteered as steward. I was greatly distressed in my mind lest all these inconveniences should prove a serious annoyance to my good friends in the saloon; but on mentioning the matter to Lady Emily, she quickly and kindly reassured me by declaring that they looked upon the whole thing in the light of an adventure or experience of a novel kind to be made the most of. "Besides," she added, "a little inconvenience and privation will do us good by teaching us to appreciate our comforts more nearly at their proper value when we get them again." The weather looked fine, and the barometer stood high; I therefore had no hesitation whatever about packing sail upon the ship; and as everybody worked with a will, it came to pass that by noon we had not only got our anchor secured, but had also clothed the ship with every stitch of plain sail, from the royals down. Forbes was not satisfied even with that, and would have gone on to studding-sails; but I considered enough to be as good as a feast. Studding-sails are rather ungainly things to handle in a quickly freshening breeze, if one happens to be at all short-handed. I therefore determined to have nothing to do with them--the more resolutely that, as we drew away from the island, the breeze strengthened until we were reeling off our nine knots by the log. This exceedingly satisfactory state of affairs prevailed for exactly forty hours from noon of the day upon which we left the island; the breeze remaining so steady and true that we were not called upon to touch tack, sheet, or halliard during the whole time. There was nothing, in fact, to do but simply to steer the ship; and we were already beginning to flatter ourselves that we were not only to be favoured with a pleasant passage, but that we were going to accomplish it in about half the time that I had allotted to it. Such a magnificent opportunity was not to be wasted; and I accordingly took advantage of it to have the ballast cleared away right in midships, and the gold and silver stowed there equally on each side of the keelson, and carefully concealed with matting and a quantity of dunnage; after which the ballast was trimmed back over it and everything left shipshape against the time of our arrival in port.