ed towards the stranger. She was an object to be
admired, as, the sun glancing on her wide spread of canvas, she heeled
gracefully over to the breeze. The two ships rapidly neared each other,
the "Crusader" keeping to windward. Closer and closer they drew; it
seemed, indeed, as if they were about to run into each other. The
stranger, however, slightly deviated from the course on which she had
been steering, and then keeping as before, showed that she intended to
pass as near as possible to leeward of the "Crusader." The passengers
of the latter ship hurried to the side nearest her, and a number of
people were seen on board, some holding on to the shrouds, others
leaning over the bulwarks.

"Why, as I'm a live man, there's our mate, Bill Windy," exclaimed one of
the "Crusader's" seamen, "and there's Dick Hansom, and Tom Bowline, I do
believe! Yes, it's Tom himself!"

Emily and May heard these exclamations, and, eagerly gazing with beating
hearts, they saw their brother Charles in the main rigging. They looked
and looked again, scarcely trusting their eyes; but there could be no
mistake. He waved his hand; he had seen them, and Bill Windy discovered
them also.

"Heave to," cried the mate, "and we will come aboard you."

The two ships glided by each other. The helm of the stranger was put
down, and with her headsails backed against the masts, she lay, hove to.
Captain Westerway imitated the manoeuvre, and the "Crusader" likewise
became almost stationary. Scarcely even now crediting what they had
seen, and feeling as if they were in a dream, the two sisters watched
the stranger. A boat was lowered. Several people jumped into her, and
she rapidly approached. In a few minutes their dear brother Charles,
for whom they had so long grieved as lost, was in their arms. May hung
about his neck, and kissed him again and again. Bill Windy and the rest
of the boat's crew received the hearty greetings of their shipmates.
The good captain, with a tear in his eye, warmly shook his mate by the
hand. "I would rather see you here alive and well, my dear fellow, than
be told I had a fortune of a hundred thousand pounds left me, and need
no longer knock about the salt ocean. I had given you up as gone for
ever, Bill."

"I knew that you would do your best to look for us, captain," answered
the mate, "and that it was no fault of yours that you didn't pick us up.
We had a narrow squeak for it; but we had saved poor Tom, and