the yards, the dawn--which comes with startling
rapidity in those latitudes--had risen high into the sky ahead, and
spread well along the horizon to north and south, causing the stars to
fade and disappear, one after another, until only a few of the brightest
remained twinkling low down in the west.

As I wheeled at the stern-grating in my monotonous promenade of the lee
side of the quarter-deck, a hail came down from aloft--

"Sail ho! two of 'em, sir, broad on the lee beam. Look as if they were
standin' out from the land."

"What are they like? Can you make out their rig?" demanded the first
luff, as he halted and directed his gaze aloft at the man on the main-
royal-yard, who, half-way out to the yard-arm, was balancing himself
upon the foot-rope, and steadying himself with one hand upon the yard as
he gazed away to leeward under the shade of the other.

"I can't make out very much, sir," replied the man. "They're too far
off; but one looks like a schooner, and t'other like a brig."

"And they are heading out from the land, you say?" demanded the
lieutenant.

"Looks like it, sir," answered the man; "but, as I was sayin', they're a
long way off; and it's a bit thick down to leeward there, so--"

"All right, never mind; cast off those gaskets and come down,"
interrupted Mr Seaton impatiently. Then, turning to me, he said:

"Mr Grenvile, take the glass and lay aloft, if you please, and see what
you can make of those strangers. Mr Keene"--to the other midshipman of
the watch--"slip down below and call the captain, if you please. Tell
him that two strange sail have been sighted from aloft, apparently
coming out from the Congo."

By the time he had finished speaking I had snatched the glass from its
beckets, and was half-way up the weather main rigging, while the watch
was sheeting home and hoisting away the topgallant-sails and royals.
When Keene reappeared on deck, after calling the skipper, I was
comfortably astride the royal-yard, with my left arm round the spindle
of the vane--the yard hoisting close up under the truck. With my right
hand I manipulated the slide of the telescope and adjusted the focus of
the instrument to suit my sight.

By this time the dawn had entirely overspread the firmament, and the sky
had lost its pallor and was all aglow with richest amber, through which
a long shaft of pale golden light, soaring straight up toward the
zenith, heralded the rising of the sun. The thickness t