"Another long cruise," he said briefly.
Soon the Sylph's head was turned toward the South, and for several days thereafter she pursued her uneventful way down the coast of South Africa. Rounding the Cape of Good Hope, she steamed straight for the distant coast of South America.
Lord Hastings stopped to coal once or twice, and so it was some days before the lookout picked up, land ahead.
"Should be the Argentine coast, if we have not drifted off our course," Lord Hastings informed the two lads.
He was right, and the following day the Sylph put in at one of the small South American ports for coal.
"We'll have the ship looked over a bit," said Lord Hastings. "We are permitted to stay in this, port 24 hours, and at the expiration of that time we must leave or be interned."
It was in this place that Lord Hastings and the members of the Sylph's crew learned of the disaster that had overtaken several British cruisers in those parts. Here, for the first time, they heard of the defeat of a small British squadron by the Germans, and of the death of Admiral Sir Christopher Craddock, who had gone down fighting to the last.
"Never fear," said Lord Hastings, "Sir Christopher's loss shall be avenged, and that shortly, or I am badly mistaken."
The following day the Sylph put to sea again, and headed down the
Argentine coast.
It was late the next afternoon, when the wireless operator aboard the Sylph picked up a message.