"It's rather hard I can't speak to my lady passenger," said Weber, as he went down below with the party. "Tell him I can understand English, though I am afraid to speak it," said Isabel in French to Hughes, who was by her side. "Ay, ay, my pretty one, we'll soon take the shame-faced-ness out of you; nothing like blue water for doing that. Well, you tell the Dom that I'll send all his traps below. Senhor Assevedo, I can't give you much law," said the old seaman, in his rough hearty tones, as he turned to return to his post. "Steward, show the lady her berth. Look alive, man," he continued, calling down the hatchway. The brig was now riding at single anchor, the headyards braced up one way, her afteryards the other, her sails flapping heavily. "Heave away, my lads, heave away with a will," shouted Weber, the moment his foot touched the quarter-deck, and the remaining anchor was soon hove up, and properly stowed away on board. "Brace round the headyards. Let fall the fore course. Take a pull at the bowlines, Mr Blount. Touch her with the wheel, Adams, she will come up a couple of points yet," were the rapid words of command, and the "Halcyon" moved through the water on a taut bowline, heading nearly her course. "A pleasant voyage to you," said Dom Assevedo, as he bent over Isabel's hand in the cabin. "Below there!" came in the captain's rough tones, "tell the Senhor Assevedo that if he don't want to see the Cape, he had better get on board his barge. The tow-rope won't hold on long, I'm thinking." Heartily shaking hands with all, the Portuguese gentleman, whose name and kindly nature are well known to men of every nation trading on the Zambesi, stepped over the side, the boat's painter was cast off, a last good bye shouted in Weber's stentorian voice, and the "Halcyon," with all sail set, to her royals, was soon standing off the bar, the bubbles flying past her rounded counter, as she slipped through the water at the rate of sonde six knots an hour. Towards sunset the wind fell, and the brig began to lose her way. The stars came out shining through a thin haze, and sail after sail flapped against the masts, filling for a moment, then collapsing again, until soon the "Halcyon" lay rolling on the gentle swell, her cordage rattling, her blocks and tackles striking against her spars and rigging, her hull groaning, and her sails perfectly useless, not having even steerage way. Leaning over the bulwarks, and looking towards the land, the faint outline of which could still be discovered about ten miles distant, Hughes was conversing with the captain. "You think, then, we shall have wind?" he asked. "I am sure of it," replied Weber; "look at the double halo round the moon, look at the sickly, watery appearance of the clouds, look at that fog-bank away to the southward. We shall have plenty of wind before morning." "And from what direction?"