to make progress at the rate of four
knots an hour under sail and a little steam, but three points off our
course. In all this time we had sighted nothing save one distant sail;
but on August 3d, to our intense joy, a steamer rose over the horizon
ahead of us. I set signals of distress, and they were seen. The steamer
proved to be the _Argonaut_, from Halifax for Liverpool, and her Captain
agreed to tow us into Halifax. It was a long, long way, and we knew it
would be a slow task, but the thought of it lightened every heart. My
men jumped eagerly to the task of passing the great hawser, and at four
o'clock in the afternoon it was stretched, and the _Argonaut_ began to
drag us westward at six knots an hour. Our ship's company gathered in
the bow and gave a cheer, and the boy smiled and said,

"'At last we shall get home to mamma.'

"I turned in after that and slept the sleep of exhaustion. The
_Argonaut_ towed us gallantly for 250 miles; and then, on the night of
August 5th, we ran into another gale from the nor'west. It was not as
bad as those we had previously encountered, but it checked our advance,
and before morning had raised a heavy sea. At eight o'clock the tow-line
parted with a report like that of a gun. To think of stretching it again
in such a sea was hopeless, but the _Argonaut_ lay by us all day.
Several times in the course of the following night we saw her lights,
but before morning the wind shifted to the southeast, a fog came up, and
we never saw the _Argonaut_ again. Sadly we set sail on the _Bristow_,
and began to move slowly through the still troubled waters. But at nine
o'clock the fog cleared off, the wind hauled to the eastward, and the
sea became moderate. I was now able to set every stitch of canvas on the
vessel with a fair wind, and I laid my course for St. John's,
Newfoundland. We forged ahead at four knots an hour, and hope revived in
every breast. But before night the wind fell light, and our progress
became nothing better than a drift of two knots hourly. Still we were
going ahead, and we did not despair. Calm weather and light winds
continued till August 10th, and then the wind came in ahead. We were now
about two hundred miles from Cape Race. Two schooners passed us in the
course of the day, and I signalled to them our condition, asking them to
report us, and they promised to do so. I now determined to use the last
fuel I could find aboard the ship. Our coal had been exhausted, and I
di