thead, "I call the 'Caroline' fast for an honest trader,
and few square-rigged boats are there, who do not wear the pennants of the
King, that can eat her out of the wind, or bring her into their wake, with
studding-sails abroad. But this is a time, and an hour, to make a seaman
think. Look at yon hazy light, here, in with the land, that is coming so
fast down upon us, and then tell me whether it comes from the coast of
America, or whether it comes from out of the stranger who has been so long
running under our lee, but who has got, or is fast getting, the wind of us
at last, and yet none here can say how, or why. I have just this much, and
no more, to say: Give me for consort a craft whose Captain I know, or give
me none!"

"Such is your taste, Mr Nighthead," said Wilder, coldly; "mine may, by
some accident, be very different."

"Yes, yes," observed the more cautious and prudent Earing, "in time of
war, and with letters of marque aboard, a man may honestly hope the sail
he sees should have a stranger for her master; or otherwise he would never
fall in with an enemy. But though an Englishman born myself, I should
rather give the ship in that mist a clear sea, seeing that I neither know
her nation nor her cruise. Ah, Captain Wilder, yonder is an awful sight
for the morning watch! Often, and often, have I seen the sun rise ill the
east, and no harm done; but little good can come of a day when the light
first breaks in the west. Cheerfully would I give the owners the last
month's pay, hard as I have earned it with my toil, did I but know under
what flag yonder stranger sails."

"Frenchman, Don, or Devil, yonder he comes!" cried Wilder. Then, turning
towards the silent an attentive crew, he shouted, in a voice that was
appalling by its vehemence and warning, "Let run the after halyards! round
with the fore-yard! round with it, men, with a will!"

These were cries that the startled crew perfectly understood. Every nerve
and muscle were exerted to execute the orders, in time to be in readiness
for the approaching tempest. No man spoke; but each expended the utmost of
his power and skill in direct and manly efforts. Nor was there, in verity,
a moment to lose, or a particle of human strength expended here, without a
sufficient object.

The lucid and fearful-looking mist, which, for the last quarter of an
hour, had been gathering in the north-west, was now driving down upon them
with the speed of a race-horse. The air had al