ut ten
knots, and steering herself, as the party stepped out on deck after
lunch and glanced around them, they became aware that during the period
of their absence from the deck they had raised the canvas of a large
full-rigged ship above the horizon. The stranger was then bearing about
two points on the starboard bow. As this was the first craft that had
been seen since they had dipped their ensign to the _Baroda_, she
excited enough interest to cause everybody to make an instant rush for
their binoculars; and within five minutes eight pairs of those very
useful instruments had been focussed upon her. She was then hull-down,
and to the non-professional eye there was nothing at all unusual in her
appearance; she was simply a becalmed ship under topsails and
topgallantsails, with her courses clewed up but not furled. A cloud of
minute spots--which could only be birds--hovering round her, bore no
significance to any one save Mildmay; and even he was not sure that he
knew quite what it meant. For it is by no means unusual for whole
flocks of gulls to hover in the wake of a ship at sea--especially if
there happens to be land within a reasonable distance--for the sake of
the fragments of waste food that daily go over a ship's side after every
meal. But whereas, under ordinary circumstances, a hundred gulls
constitute a very respectable flock, there appeared to be at least ten
times this number hovering about the stranger; and it was this unusual
circumstance that prompted Mildmay to suggest to Sir Reginald that they
should edge a little nearer to her, with the object of seeking an
explanation of the phenomenon. The baronet raising no objection,
Mildmay stepped into the pilot-house, and, adjusting the helm, brought
the ship straight over the bows of the _Flying Fish_, and at the same
time raised the speed of the latter to eighteen knots.

Under these conditions it was not long ere the stranger was near enough
to admit of details being made out with the aid of the excellent glasses
of the party; and it then became apparent to all that the canvas set was
so old and thin and weather-perished, that it had become
semi-transparent, the brilliant light of the afternoon showing through
it so strongly that the masts and some of the rigging behind could be
traced through the attenuated fabric. The next thing about the craft
that attracted attention was the fact that some of the running and
standing rigging had parted and was ha