namely, the upper canvas of a
sailing craft of some sort. I remained where I was, intently watching
that gleaming white speck until it had grown into the semblance of a
royal and the head of a topgallant sail. From time to time I also got
occasional glimpses of the upper part of another sail which I could not
for the moment identify; but ultimately, as I watched, the strange craft
seemed to alter her course a little, and then I made out the puzzling
piece of canvas to be the triangular head of a gaff-topsail; the vessel
was therefore, without a doubt, a brigantine. What I could not at first
understand, however, was the way she was steering; at one moment she
would appear absolutely end-on, while a minute or two later she would be
broad off the wind, to the extent of four or five points. It was
exceedingly erratic steering, to say the least of it, and I was
tantalised too by my inability to determine whether she was heading
toward or away from me; but eventually I decided that, since her masts
had hove up above the horizon just where they were, she must be heading
toward me. The only argument against this assumption was that she did
not appear to be rising rapidly enough to justify it; but she certainly
_was_ rising, although slowly, and that was enough for me in the
meantime. Without further ado, therefore, I slid down from aloft, went
aft, and seized the yoke-lines, saying to myself:

"I believe it's going to be all right this time. She is a sailing craft
and I am raising her, although very slowly. It will be afternoon before
I can get alongside her, but, please God, there will be no more open
boating for me after to-day."

That the craft in sight was indeed a brigantine became unmistakable as I
stood on, slowly raising her canvas above the horizon; and later on in
the day I made two further discoveries, of a rather peculiar character,
in connection with her. One was, that she was hove-to; the other, that
she was flying her ensign upside-down at the peak of her mainsail, the
latter circumstance indicating that she was in distress or required
assistance of some kind.

It was about three o'clock in the afternoon when the life-boat crept up
near enough to the brigantine to enable me to distinguish details; and
the first thing I observed was that a group of five or six men--
apparently forecastle hands--were grouped aft, curiously inspecting the
boat through a telescope as I approached. A little later, when I