r duty to the owners and the
passengers to speak her, if a man can make his voice heard in this
tempest," the second mate continued, pointing, through the haze, at the
dim object that was certainly at hand.

"Speak her!--passengers!" muttered Wilder, involuntarily repeating his
words. "No; any thing is better than speaking her. Do you see the
vessel that is driving down upon us so fast?" he sternly demanded of the
watchful seaman who still clung to the wheel of the _Caroline_.

"Ay, ay, sir."

"Give her a berth--sheer away hard to port--perhaps he may pass us in the
gloom, now we are no higher than our decks. Give the ship a broad sheer,
I say, sir."

The usual laconic answer was given; and, for a few moments, the Bristol
trader was seen diverging a little from the line in which the other
approached; but a second glance assured Wilder that the attempt was
useless. The strange ship (every man on board felt certain it was the
same that had so long been seen hanging in the north-western horizon)
came on through the mist, with a swiftness that nearly equalled the
velocity of the tempestuous winds themselves. Not a thread of canvas was
seen on board her. Each line of spars, even to the tapering and delicate
top-gallant masts, was in its place, preserving the beauty and symmetry
of the whole fabric; but nowhere was the smallest fragment of a sail
opened to the gale. Under her bows rolled a volume of foam that was even
discernible amid the universal agitation of the ocean; and, as she came
within sound, the sullen roar of the water might have been likened to the
noise of a cascade. At first, the spectators on the decks of the
_Caroline_ believed they were not seen, and some of the men called madly
for lights, in order that the disasters of the night might not terminate
in an encounter.

"Too many see us there already!" said Wilder.

"No, no," muttered Knighthead; "no fear but we are seen; and by such
eyes, too, as never yet looked out of mortal head!"

The seamen paused. In another instant, the long-seen and mysterious ship
was within a hundred feet of them. The very power of that wind, which
was wont usually to raise the billows, now pressed the element, with the
weight of mountains, into its bed. The sea was every where a sheet of
froth, but the water did not rise above the level of the surface. The
instant a wave lifted itself from the security of the vast depths, the
fluid was borne away before the torn