direction she had gone no one
could say.

About a fortnight after this, when we were about fifty miles to the
southward of the Galapagos, I one morning at sunrise having gone aloft,
caught sight of a sail between us and the islands, and almost ahead. My
heart gave a bound, for I made sure that she was the "Lady Alice." As,
however, we neared her, when I again went aloft to look out, much to my
disappointment I saw that she was a much smaller craft, a schooner,
standing from the eastward for the islands. Another look at her a
little later showed me that she was of the same size and appearance as
that of the craft whose piratical crew had attacked us. I felt, indeed,
convinced that she was the same. On coming down on deck I told the
captain, unable, however, to conjecture what he would do. At first I
thought it possible that he might make chase, and attempt to capture
her; but then I reflected that though we had four guns she probably
carried many more, with a larger crew, and that, at all events, we could
not venture to fire at her unless she attacked us.

"We'll let her alone, Jack, whether she's the pirate, schooner or not,
but we must take care that she does not come alongside the ship while
the boats are away, or the rascals aboard her may take the liberty of
relieving us of our money and stores," observed the captain.

The moment he said this the thought flashed across my mind, "What if she
should have fallen in with the `Lady Alice'?" The idea was too terrible
to dwell on. Yet once conceived, I could not banish it from my mind. I
spoke to Medley on the subject. He tried to console me by saying that
even if the schooner we had seen was a pirate it was not at all likely
that she should have fallen in with the "Lady Alice," and if she had,
have ventured to attack her. As may be supposed, I more eagerly than
ever looked out for our fellow-cruiser, but day after day went by and
not a white speck denoting a distant sail was to be seen above the
horizon.

We were all this time very unsuccessful in our business. We gave chase
to three whales, which, one after the other, got away before the boats
reached them. The captain swore that he would have the next. Not one
was seen, however, for a whole week. The men grumbled and wondered why
we remained on the station. At last one morning, just at daybreak, the
look-out, who had just gone to the masthead, gave the welcome shout of
"There she spouts! there she sp