Spaniards' ways. And they made a deputation and waited upon Captain
Shard, all of them sober and wearing their costly clothes, and they
said that the Mediterranean was a trap, and all he said was that the
North wind should hold. And the crew said they were done.

So they entered the Mediterranean and the English fleet came up and
closed the straits. And Shard went tacking along the Moroccan coast
with a dozen frigates behind him. And the North wind grew in strength.
And not till evening did he speak to his crew, and then he gathered
them all together except the man at the helm, and politely asked them
to come down to the hold. And there he showed them six immense steel
axles and a dozen low iron wheels of enormous width which none had
seen before; and he told his crew how all unknown to the world his
keel had been specially fitted for these same axles and wheels, and
how he meant soon to sail to the wide Atlantic again, though not by
the way of the straits. And when they heard the name of the Atlantic
all his merry men cheered, for they looked on the Atlantic as a wide
safe sea.

And night came down and Captain Shard sent for his diver. With the sea
getting up it was hard work for the diver, but by midnight things were
done to Shard's satisfaction, and the diver said that of all the jobs
he had done--but finding no apt comparison, and being in need of a
drink, silence fell on him and soon sleep, and his comrades carried
him away to his hammock. All the next day the chase went on with the
English well in sight, for Shard had lost time overnight with his
wheels and axles, and the danger of meeting the Spaniards increased
every hour; and evening came when every minute seemed dangerous, yet
they still went tacking on towards the East where they knew the
Spaniards must be.