e stood thus; then, twisting his body until he faced aft, he hailed:

"On deck there!"

"Hillo!" answered the mate.

"There's a biggish ship away out yonder, sir," reported the man, "under
her three taups'ls and fore topmast staysail; and by the way that she
comes to and falls off again I'd say that she was hove-to."

"How far off is she?" demanded the mate.

"'Bout a dozen mile, I reckon, sir," answered the man.

"Um!" remarked the mate, as much to himself as to me, it seemed. "She
is probably a whaler on the lookout for `fish'. I believe they
sometimes meet with rare streaks of luck just about here. All right,"
he added, hailing the man aloft; "you can come down."

Shortly afterward we made out the stranger's upper spars from the deck;
and from the rapidity with which we raised them it soon became apparent
that, if she had really been hove-to when first seen, she had soon
filled away, and was now standing in our direction. By five bells she
was hull-up; and while the skipper and mate were standing together
eyeing her from the break of the poop--the latter with the ship's
telescope at his eye--I saw the ensign of the stranger float out over
her rail and go creeping up to her gaff-end.

"There goes her ensign, sir," I shouted to the mate, who responded by
remarking dryly:

"Yes; I see it." Then, turning to the skipper, he said:

"There's something wrong aboard that craft, sir; they've just hoisted
their ensign, jack downward!" This, it may be explained to the
uninitiated, is a signal of distress.

"The dickens they have!" exclaimed the skipper. "Just let me have a
look at her, Mr Bryce."

The mate handed over the telescope, and the skipper raised it to his
eye, adjusting the focus to his sight.

"Ay, you are quite right," he agreed, with his eye still peering through
the tube. "The jack's downward, right enough. Wonder what's wrong
aboard of her? her hull and spars seem to be all right, and I don't see
any water pouring from her scuppers, as there would be if she had sprung
a leak and the hands were working at the pumps. Well, we shall soon
know, I suppose. Let our own ensign be hoisted in acknowledgment, Mr
Bryce."

"Ay, ay, sir," answered the mate. "Troubridge,"--to me--"jump aft and
run our ensign up to the peak, will ye?"

I went aft to the flag locker, drew out the big ensign, bent it on to
the halyards, and ran it up to the gaff-end, where there was just wind
enough to blow it out an