The head was treated in the same way; and a number of slices being cut off the body, the remainder was thrown overboard. Murray, wondering what the hubbub was about, had come on deck, and was an amused spectator of the scene. The men no longer thought of the heat, and, in spite of it, regaled themselves heartily on shark-steaks at dinner. The capture of the shark, too, brought them good luck, they declared; for a favourable breeze shortly afterwards sprang up, and held till the northern coast of the South American continent was sighted. Before, however, Carthagena, the port at which Murray had been directed to call, first could be made, it again fell calm. He felt the delay very trying. He had been eagerly hoping to get in by the evening, to ascertain if anything had been heard of the _Sarah Jane_, and now another whole day or more might pass before he could gain any information. The coast lay in sight, its ranges of light-blue mountains looking like clouds, rising above the horizon but proving that they were mountains by never altering their shape or position. Higson whistled as energetically as usual, but not a catspaw played over the surface of the mirror-like sea, and not an inch nearer the shore did the brig move during the day. The night passed by, and the hot sun rose once more out of the still slumbering ocean. The day wore on, but no breeze came. The men, of course, were not idle. Murray had from the first exercised them at their guns, and especially in the use of the long one. He remembered the advice Admiral Triton had given to Jack Rogers, and which Jack had repeated to him-- "Don't mind throwing a few rounds of shot away; you'll make the better use of those you have remaining." He, accordingly, had a floating target rigged and carried out to a distance, and each day during a calm he exercised the men at it for some hours, till they learnt to handle their long gun with as much ease as the carronades. "Though we miss that mark sometimes, we shall manage to hit a larger one without fail if it comes in our way, my lads!" he sang out, to encourage the crew as they were working away at it during the morning. After dinner the men were allowed some time to rest, and all was quiet. An observation showed that the brig's position had not altered since the previous noon. "What do you make that out to be, Green?" asked Higson, the officer of the watch, who had been looking through his telescope towards the shore. Green turned his glass in the same direction. "A boat! and she must be coming towards us," he answered, after the delay of a minute or so. Higson sent him to report the circumstance to the commander, who at once came on deck. Various were the surmises as to what could bring the boat off to them. "She must have had a long pull of it, at all events," observed Higson. "Perhaps she had the land wind, which we don't feel out here?" said Green.