f she might have been afire; but I don't see
nobody aboard of her except the chap what's hangin' over the poop rail,
and it's him that seems to be tollin' the bell."

"All right, boatswain," I replied, "I'll be on deck directly, and take
my bath as usual under the head-pump, after which we will have a good
look at our neighbour."

Springing out of my bunk, I passed through the main cabin out on deck,
and so forward into the eyes of the ship, where one of the watch, having
rigged the head-pump in readiness for washing decks, sluiced me for a
couple of minutes with clear, cool, sparkling salt water. The
refreshment from this exhilarating shower bath, after a night spent in a
close sleeping-cabin, was indescribable; and having given myself a good
towelling I returned aft to my cabin to dress for the day, taking a
cursory glance at the strange barque as I went. As the boatswain had
said, she was about half a mile distant from us, and her mizenmast was
over the side, still fast to the hull by the rigging, which had not been
cut away.

Half an hour later, having given the scrubbers time to get off the poop,
I once more hied me on deck, this time taking the ship's telescope with
me; and now, seating myself upon a convenient hencoop, I proceeded to
acquire as much knowledge of the stranger as was to be obtained with the
aid of a reasonably good set of lenses. I saw that the vessel was a
craft of probably a trifle over three hundred tons, her hull painted
green, from her rail down to her zinc sheathing. She was lying in such
a position that the _Mercury_ was broad on her port bow, and my first
glimpse of her showed that she carried a name upon her head-boards,
which name, after a while, I made out to be _Braave_. She was,
therefore, doubtless Dutch. For a little while after that I was unable
to make out anything further about her, for she lay right in the wake of
the newly risen sun, the dazzle of which obliterated all detail; but
after the lapse of about a quarter of an hour the sun crept a trifle
away to the south of her, while some slight movement on the part of both
vessels helped me. Then, although her port side was still in shadow, a
dark stain on the green paint beneath one of her scuppers attracted my
attention, and set me wondering what it could possibly be; for there was
a sinister suggestiveness about its appearance that I did not want to
accept.

I could still see nobody about her decks, although the time