Round came the ship bravely, and with the monsoon filling all her sails, she stood off in the opposite direction to that she had hitherto been pursuing, her starboard tacks on board, and lying almost at a right angle from her long white frothy wake, which could be distinctly traced in the pure green of the sea, and soon after the faint blue outline of Cape Corientes sank into the evening haze upon the lee quarter.
CHAPTER XX.
RADAMA PUFFADDER.
It was a pleasant sunny morning when Ethel was roused by Morley tapping on her cabin-door, and making the cheerful announcement that land was in sight, almost ahead, so she and Rose made a rapid toilette and joined him and the rest of their friends on deck.
The south-west wind held steadily, and its breath rippled all the morning sea in wavelets that seemed tipped with gold. The sunshine, bright and warm, spread a yellow tint over all the western quarter of the sky. In dark outline, as if tinted with indigo, about ten miles distant, rose a mountain, in the form of a sugar-loaf, blending at its base with lesser ones that were near to the sea.
"Madagascar, Ethel," said Morley, with a bright smile, as he pointed to the coast.
"And yonder headland is Cape St. Mary," added Dr. Heriot. "I should know the place pretty well by this time."
"Why, Leslie?" asked Rose.
"Because I see it now for the fourth time."
"Poor Leslie!" said Rose; "and you have gone those long voyages so often, when I knew nothing of them."