"I've never sailed wi' a skeeper's wife before," said McGill, who had shipped in the _Star of the South_ a week earlier, in place of the second mate, who had been given his discharge for drunkenness. "Is she at all interferin', Mr. Semple?" Old Semple nodded. "She interferes some, and it would be an obstinate cook that disputed with her. She made a revolution in the galley, my word, when she first came on board. Some would say she cockered the crew over-much, but I was long enough in the fo'c's'le not to forget that even a hog of a man don't do best on hogwash." Which was a marvellous concession on the part of any of the after-guard of any ship, seeing how the notion persists among owners, and even among officers, that the worse men are treated the better they work. "She seems a comfortable ship," owned McGill. And so everyone on board of her allowed. "Though she is a bit of a heart-breaker to handle," said the men for'ard. "But for that she be a daisy. And to think that the bally _Battle-Axe_ goes about like a racing yacht!" It made them sore to think of it. But it also made the men on board their rival sore to think how comfortable the _Star of the South_ was in all other respects. Owing to the fact that the _Battle-Axe's_ crowd was sulky, the _Star of the South_ got her anchor out of the ground and stood to the north-west to round Point Angelos a good ten minutes before Watchett's vessel was under way. "That's good," said Connie Ryder. "I know they're a sulky lot by now in the _Battle-Axe_. And our men work like dears." It was with difficulty she kept from tailing on to the braces as they jammed the _Star_ close up to weather the Point. For the wind was drawing down the coast from the nor'ard, and Valparaiso harbour faces due north. She was glad when they rounded the Point and squared away, for if there was any real difference in the sailing qualities of the rival barques, the _Star_ was best before the wind and the _Battle-Axe_ when she was in a bow-line. "And with any real luck," said Mrs. Ryder, "we may have a good fair wind all the way till we cross the line." It was so far ahead to consider the north-east trades, which meant such mighty long stretches in a wind, that she declined to think of them. And she entirely forgot the calms of Capricorn. "We're doing very well, Will," she said to her husband when the starboard watch went below and the routine of the passage home commenced. "It's early days," replied Will Ryder. "I fancy the _Battle-Axe_ is in her best trim for a wind astern." But Mrs. Ryder didn't believe it. "And if she is, she mayn't be so good when it comes to beating." She knew what she was talking about and spoke good sense.