Part 3 (1/2)

They felt the shi+p swing round on a new course, and the rays of the setting sun lit up the saloon table through the open starboard ports

”Due south now, ladies!” cried Dr Christobal cheerily ”We have rounded Cape Cardones We practically follow the seventy-sixth degree until we approach Evangelistas Island Thus far we are in the open sea Then we pick our way through the Straits discovered by that daring Portuguese, Fernando de Magallanes, to whose memory I always drink heartily once we are clear of the Cape of the Eleven Thousand Virgins I never pass through that gloo that he deserved a better fate than e in the Philippines Peace be to his ashes!”

And the doctor lifted his glass of red ith a quasi-masonic ritual which lent sole way ahead of your toast,” said Isobel

”Just as Magellan was ahead of his times,” was the rejoinder

”Yet he was a man of leisurely habit,” put in Elsie, who found Dr

Christobal's old-world manners full of charm and repose

”How so?” said he, puzzled, for the worthy Portuguese navigator was notoriously a swashbuckler

”Otherwise he never could have christened any unhappy pro-winded name,” she explained

”Perhaps he”Monsieur de Poincilit here, were he in a very bad teht exclaim, 'Mille diables!' Why should not our excellent Fernando rail against the almost inconceivable fickleness which could be displayed by eleven ti ladies?”

”I came out last ti such a place,” said Isobel She was a Chilean born and bred, but she always affected European vagueness as to the topography of South America Dr Christobal knew this weakness of hers; he also remembered her beautiful half-casteeyes, her purple-red lips, and a skin in which the exquisite flush of terra-cotta on her checks ed into the delicate pallor of forehead and neck

But, being a tactful ruffly dubbed the adjacent point 'Cape Dungeness,' have shortened Magellan's ins'--Yet, Ursula was a British saint, and her ht to be revered, if only because it keeps alive a classic pun”

A born raconteur, he paused

”Go right ahead, doctor,” came a voice from the lower end of the table

”Well, the story runs that Princess Ursula fled froan--”

”How odd!” interrupted Isobel, and Elsie alone understood the drift of her comment

”Not at all odd if she didn't happen to like hine, and wasafterwards a stone was found with the inscription _Ursula et Undeciines_, which was incorrectly translated into 'Ursula and her Eleven Thousand Virgins' So comma after Undecimilla, the na that two young ladies were a more reasonable and probable nuend ever cared for a coer of the Church of St Ursula will show you the bones of the whole party in glass cases, and, equally a, the town of Baoza in Spain claiellan had a man froht to provide a lecturer on things in general and interesting places passed in particular,” said Isobel

Dr Christobal bowed

”I am sure that some of the officers of the _Orellana_ could have told you the history of Cape Virgins, but they, not to er list, would certainly find you better sport than puzzling your pretty head about the shi+p's landmarks”

”I also ca to be seen,” murmured the Frenchman

”You had a dull trip, I take it?” said the doctor, quietly

”I was very ill,” was the response; but, after a stare of surprise, he joined in the resultant laugh quite good-naturedly

”It is a standing joke that my countrye, don't you think, seeing that France has the second largest navy in the world?”

”Console yourself, reat sea-captains, Nelson, Cook, and, it is said, Columbus himself, always paid tribute to Neptune And, if I ah the port e shall all have our stamina tested before twenty-four hours have passed”