to be the end of this
strife in the elements. Cap, however, was perfectly composed, and his
face brightened, his step grew firmer, and his whole air more assured,
as the storm increased, making larger demands on his professional skill
and personal spirit. He stood on the forecastle, his arms crossed,
balancing his body with a seaman's instinct, while his eyes watched the
caps of the seas, as they broke and glanced past the reeling cutter,
itself in such swift motion, as if they were the scud flying athwart the
sky. At this sublime instant one of the hands gave the unexpected cry of
"A sail!"

There was so much of the wild and solitary character of the wilderness
about Ontario, that one scarcely expected to meet with a vessel on its
waters. The _Scud_ herself, to those who were in her, resembled a
man threading the forest alone, and the meeting was like that of two
solitary hunters beneath the broad canopy of leaves that then covered so
many millions of acres on the continent of America. The peculiar state
of the weather served to increase the romantic, almost supernatural
appearance of the passage. Cap alone regarded it with practised eyes,
and even he felt his iron nerves thrill under the sensations that were
awakened by the wild features of the scene.

The strange vessel was about two cables' length ahead of the _Scud_,
standing by the wind athwart her bows, and steering a course to render
it probable that the latter would pass within a few yards of her.
She was a full-rigged ship; and, seen through the misty medium of the
tempest, the most experienced eye could detect no imperfection in her
gear or construction. The only canvas she had set was a close-reefed
main-topsail, and two small storm-staysails, one forward and the other
aft. Still the power of the wind pressed so hard upon her as to bear her
down nearly to her beam-ends, whenever the hull was not righted by the
buoyancy of some wave under her lee. Her spars were all in their places,
and by her motion through the water, which might have equalled four
knots in the hour, it was apparent that she steered a little free.

"The fellow must know his position well," said Cap, as the cutter flew
down towards the ship with a velocity almost equalling that of the gale,
"for he is standing boldly to the southward, where he expects to find
anchorage or a haven. No man in his senses would run off free in that
fashion, that was not driven to scudding, like ourselves, who