Brown rose from the hatch and gave a groan of disgust. Then he went aft on the quarter-deck, and all of that watch he appeared to be thinking over some interesting subject. He was so absorbed that he hardly spoke to me until midnight. Then he gave a sigh of relief, and, as O’Toole came to relieve us, we went below.
I stopped a few moments to take a bite of the salt junk set out on the cabin table for the mates. Afterward, seeing the light in his stateroom, I passed by his open door to see why a third mate should stay awake during his watch below.
There he sat in his bunk, with a great pile of the most flashy police reports of the period on the stool beside him.
“Come in, Mr. Gore,” said he. “I have just made a fine haul of papers. Found them in that quartermaster’s chest this morning. Take one; they are uncommonly interesting,” and he gave me one with an enormous woman in tights pictured on the cover.
“Thanks,” I said. “Good night,” and I went to my room and turned in.
CHAPTER IX.
The weather continued fair, and in three weeks we crossed the line in about twenty degrees west longitude.
We had seen but few vessels on the run down, but now sails were sighted almost daily.
Some of these were heavily loaded clippers, bound round Cape Horn, that had kept well to the eastward, in order to pick up the southeast trade as far over as possible and keep from getting jammed to the northward of Cape St. Roque.
As the northeast trade died out it left us entering the region of the doldrums, with its squalls and calms. We did well to carry the trade across the line, and then we drifted about for several days without making any southing to speak of. The southeast trade appeared to be well to the southward and the weather continued hot and calm.