Meantime the schooner can hardly be said to have gone on at all. What with light head winds, and currents, and calms, her progress was but slow. This state of things was very irritating to Zac, who began to mutter something about these rascally Moosoos bringing bad luck, and "he'd be darned if he wouldn't like to know where in blamenation it was all going to end." But as Claude was no longer so good a listener as he used to be, Zac grew tired of talking to empty space, and finally held his peace. The winds and tides, and the delay, however, made no difference with Claude, nor did it interfere in the slightest with his self-content and self-complacency. In fact, he looked as though he rather enjoyed the situation; and this was not the least aggravating thing in the surroundings to the mind of the impatient skipper. Thus several days passed, and at length Claude had an opportunity of drawing Mimi into another somewhat protracted conversation. "I am very much obliged to you," said Claude, gayly, "for making your appearance. I have been trying to do the agreeable to your shipmate Cazeneau, but without success. Is he always so amiable? and is he a friend of yours?" Mimi looked at Claude with a very serious expression as he said this, and was silent for a few minutes. "He is a friend of papa's," said she at last. "He came out with us--" "Is he a great friend of yours?" asked Claude. Mimi hesitated for a moment, and then said,-- "No; I do not like him at all." Claude drew a long breath. "Nor do I," said he. "Perhaps I am doing him injustice," said Mimi, "but I cannot help feeling as though he is in some way connected with dear papa's troubles. I do not mean to say that he is the cause of them. I merely mean that, as far as I know anything about them, it is always in such a way that he seems mixed up with them. And I don't think, either, that his face is very much in his favor, for there is something so harsh and cruel in his expression, that I always wish that papa had chosen some different kind of a person for his friend and confidant." "Is he all that?" asked Claude. "O, I suppose so," said Mimi. "They have secrets together, and make, together, plans that I know nothing about." "Do you suppose," asked Claude, "that you will ever be in any way connected with their plans?" He put this question, which was a general one, in a very peculiar tone, which indicated some deeper meaning. It seemed as though Mimi understood him, for she threw at him a hurried and half-frightened look. "Why?" she asked. "What makes you ask such a question as that?" "O, I don't know," said Claude. "The thought merely entered my mind--perhaps because I dislike him, and suspect him, and am ready to imagine all kinds of evil about him." Mimi regarded him now with a very earnest look, and said nothing for some time. "Have you any recollection," she asked, at length, "of ever having seen his face anywhere, at any time, very long ago?" Claude shook his head.