It is needless to say that I took no more such chances.
The tridacna were afterward procured in a safe boat, thirty of them taking the place of three tons of cement ballast, which I threw overboard to make room and give buoyancy.
[Illustration: Captain Slocum drifting out to sea.] On August 22, the kpeting, or whatever else it was that held the sloop in the islands, let go its hold, and she swung out to sea under all sail, heading again for home.

Mounting one or two heavy rollers on the fringe of the atoll, she cleared the flashing reefs.

Long before dark Keeling Cocos, with its thousand souls, as sinless in their lives as perhaps it is possible for frail mortals to be, was left out of sight, astern.

Out of sight, I say, except in my strongest affection.
The sea was rugged, and the _Spray_ washed heavily when hauled on the wind, which course I took for the island of Rodriguez, and which brought the sea abeam.

The true course for the island was west by south, one quarter south, and the distance was nineteen hundred miles; but I steered considerably to the windward of that to allow for the heave of the sea and other leeward effects.