I was tremendously interested to see how a ship could be steered into a port at night with nothing but light-houses and a compass to guide you.  It seemed to me that the Doctor missed all the rocks and sand-bars very cleverly.

We got into that funny little Cornish harbor about eleven o’clock that night.  The Doctor took his stowaways on shore in our small row-boat which we kept on the deck of the Curlew and found them rooms at the hotel there.  When he got back he told us that Mrs. Luke had gone straight to bed and was feeling much better.

It was now after midnight; so we decided to stay in the harbor and wait till morning before setting out again.

I was glad to get to bed, although I felt that staying up so tremendously late was great fun.  As I climbed into the bunk over the Doctor’s and pulled the blankets snugly round me, I found I could look out of the port-hole at my elbow, and, without raising my head from the pillow, could see the lights of Penzance swinging gently up and down with the motion of the ship at anchor.  It was like being rocked to sleep with a little show going on to amuse you.  I was just deciding that I liked the life of the sea very much when I fell fast asleep.

THE FOURTH CHAPTER

OUR TROUBLES CONTINUE

The next morning when we were eating a very excellent breakfast of kidneys and bacon, prepared by our good cook Bumpo, the Doctor said to me,

“I was just wondering, Stubbins, whether I should stop at the Capa Blanca Islands or run right across for the coast of Brazil.  Miranda said we could expect a spell of excellent weather now—­for four and a half weeks at least.”

“Well,” I said, spooning out the sugar at the bottom of my cocoa-cup, “I should think it would be best to make straight across while we are sure of good weather.  And besides the Purple Bird-of-Paradise is going to keep a lookout for us, isn’t she?  She’ll be wondering what’s happened to us if we don’t get there in about a month.”

“True, quite true, Stubbins.  On the other hand, the Capa Blancas make a very convenient stopping place on our way across.  If we should need supplies or repairs it would be very handy to put in there.”

“How long will it take us from here to the Capa Blancas?” I asked.

“About six days,” said the Doctor—­“Well, we can decide later.  For the next two days at any rate our direction would be the same practically in either case.  If you have finished breakfast let’s go and get under way.”

Upstairs I found our vessel surrounded by white and gray seagulls who flashed and circled about in the sunny morning air, looking for food-scraps thrown out by the ships into the harbor.

By about half past seven we had the anchor up and the sails set to a nice steady breeze; and this time we got out into the open sea without bumping into a single thing.  We met the Penzance fishing fleet coming in from the night’s fishing, and very trim and neat they looked, in a line like soldiers, with their red-brown sails all leaning over the same way and the white water dancing before their bows.