ILS ON BOARD THE
RESEARCH.

Interesting as Gerald's letter was to Norah and her father, it caused
them the greatest possible anxiety. Owen had sailed some considerable
time before it was written, and he had not yet arrived! Poor Norah
scarcely dared ask herself what had happened. Had the _Ouzel Galley_
been overtaken by the hurricane? Gerald at the same time appeared
certain that she had escaped it, and if she had, by what cause was she
delayed? Had she been captured by the enemy? That was too probable;
but, then, Owen would surely have found means of sending a letter to
England describing the event. Captain Tracy immediately wrote to the
house in Dublin, but they had heard nothing of the ship.

"Oh, father!" exclaimed Norah at length, in a tone which showed her
alarm, "can he have fallen into the hands of those terrible pirates of
whom Gerald speaks?"

"The _Ouzel Galley_ was too well manned, and, I may venture to say,
would have been too well handled and fought, to yield to a rascally
buccaneering craft," answered Captain Tracy. "No, no, Norah, don't let
that thought trouble you; she may have been dismasted in a gale of
wind--no skill can at all times prevent such an accident--or she may
have met with long calms in the tropics and contrary winds afterwards.
Wait a bit, cushla machree, and she'll come in some fine morning when we
least expect her."

Still the old captain himself was sadly troubled about the matter.
Norah could with difficulty keep up her spirits, though she tried to do
so for her father's sake and for that of Mrs Massey, to whom she
endeavoured not to communicate her own alarm; but the poor mother had
begun to feel as anxious as she was, and every time Norah went to see
her, her first utterance was, "No news of Owen yet?" Then she would
sigh, and the tears would trickle down her pale cheeks. The captain
paid daily visits to Waterford, carefully examining the public papers to
ascertain if anything had been heard of the _Ouzel Galley_; but week
after week and month after month went by, yet nothing was heard of her.
Captain Tracy again wrote to Ferris, Twigg, and Cash; in their answer
they said that, having waited so long a time without hearing of her,
they considered her lost, and were about to apply to the underwriters to
pay over the amount of her insurance. Captain Tracy, who, though
holding the firm in great respect, was nevertheless always free and
outspoken, replied that he did not