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days and the weeks passed, and the gallant Columbia kept steadily upon her course. They had now passed longitude 150° east of Greenwich, and were but a short distance north of the Ladrones, while the Farallon de Pajaros, Captain Ponsberry calculated, would be sighted within the next forty-eight hours, providing the wind did not fall.

The Columbia, up to this time, had been making a quick passage, but now, with the going down of that heavy and hot sun, the wind died out utterly, and on the following day the sails flapped idly against the masts, and everything came to a standstill.

"We are in for a calm now," remarked Striker. "I knowed we was bound to come next to it sooner or later."

"Never mind," replied Larry, ever ready to look upon the cheerful side. "When it does blow, it will come so much the stronger."