hove-to, just where she was; the
inference therefore was indisputable that, if not a man-o'-war, she must
be lurking just off the entrance of the Windward Passage for some
unlawful purpose. If by any chance the craft in sight should prove to
be the one that we were after, I believed that I should be able to
recognise her upon my first glimpse of her through the telescope. When
I got aloft and brought my instrument to bear upon her, I found,
however, that she was just in the very thick of the dazzle of the newly
risen sun, and it was not until I had been aloft quite a quarter of an
hour that I was able to see her at all distinctly. Even then I could
discern no details of painting; I could not make out whether her hull
was painted black or green, whether she had painted ports, or merely a
narrow ribbon, or had neither. She showed against the strong light of
the eastern horizon simply as a dainty jet-black silhouette, rising and
falling lazily upon the long swell. But after looking long and
steadfastly at her I came to the conclusion, in the first instance, that
she was not a man-o'-war, and, in the next, that her general shape and
style of rig were sufficiently familiar to justify me in the belief, or
at least the suspicion, that I had seen her before. At all events it
was my obvious duty to get near enough to her to enable me to ascertain
what business she had to be lying-to just where we had happened to find
her, and I accordingly gave Simpson instructions to make sail, and then
see all clear for action.

It was evident that, whatever might be the character of the stranger,
those aboard her were fully as wide awake as ourselves, for no sooner
did we start to make sail than she did the same, with a celerity, too,
that would not have disgraced a man-o'-war. Within five minutes of my
having given the order to make sail, both craft were thrashing hard to
windward, under all plain sail to their royals. And then we were not
long in discovering that, fast as was the _Francesca_, the stranger
appeared to be nearly if not quite as fast, although we in the schooner
seemed to be rather the more weatherly of the two. This, however, might
simply mean that the skipper of the brig was intentionally allowing us
to close very gradually with him, in order that he might have the
opportunity to get a nearer look at us, and so be enabled to form a
better judgment regarding our character, while making his own
preparations, if indee