The wind continued fair and the weather fine, and the _Ouzel Galley_ made good progress on her voyage. Norah was not free from anxiety with regard to her father, who had sufficiently recovered his strength to come on deck and carry on duty, but she longed to get him safe on shore, where alone she believed he would be restored to his usual health. The new mate showed himself to be a good seaman, and was evidently accustomed to command, as far as the captain could judge by the way in which he trimmed sails and issued his orders to the crew. They obeyed him as seamen always do an officer whom they look upon as a good sailor--not that they were particularly disposed to like him, for he never spoke to any of them except to tell them what to do, and his tone was always that of a person who intended to have his orders carried out. Had he come on board in the ordinary way, they would have taken this as a matter of course; but Pompey had expressed his opinion that there was some mystery about him--he might be a true man, but it was possible that he might be of the character of the well-known Flying Dutchman, and had appeared only for the sake of betraying them. The rest of the crew were well disposed to take up this opinion; indeed, few believed that a mortal man could have survived on the raft in the heavy sea there was running at the time; and Mr Carnegan was more narrowly watched than he suspected. "I tell you what, mates," observed Pompey one evening, when he and two or three of his especial chums were seated together in the forecastle, "you may be sartain sure no good will come of having this stranger aboard. Why de captain make him mate is more than I can tell. De oder night, as he walked the deck shouting out to de hand on de fore-topsail yard-arm, I see a flame of fire come of his mouth, and den I says to myself, `I know who you are.' I tell you only what true, as I am living man." "Shure, he was only knocking the ashes out of his pipe," remarked Dan Connor; "it's one he brought on board with him, and I've seen him smoke it many a time." "He may have a pipe, but dat was no pipe he was smoking den," answered the black. "I ain't quite sure but as how Pompey isn't right," remarked Tom Stokes, an English seaman. "I've heard say that the Flying Dutchman he was speaking of plays all sorts of tricks to get aboard; sometimes he comes alongside in a boat with a bundle of letters, and woe betide the crew who take them on board! Their ship's doomed, and will be sure to blow up, or be burnt, or go to the bottom, or run on a sunken reef. To my mind, half the ships that are cast away are lost by some such trick as that. Maybe he thinks he's been found out, and is now trying a new dodge; if I had my will, we'd lay him by the heels some dark night and heave him overboard--it's the only chance there is of saving the ship."