ull, and the small crescent
to which she had been reduced would not rise until very late; there was
a prospect, therefore, that the coming night would be both dark and
thick; just the kind of night, in fact, when we might hope to blunder up
against a ship belonging to the enemy, and take her by surprise.

Captain Winter's plan was to run across to the French coast, make
Cherbourg, and then cruise to the westward, in the hope that, by so
doing, we should either pick up a French homeward-bound merchantman, or
succeed in recapturing one of the prizes that the French privateers
occasionally captured in the Channel and generally sent into Cherbourg
or Saint Malo. Should we fail in this, his next project was to cruise
in the chops of the Channel for a fortnight, and then return to Weymouth
to replenish our stores and water; it being hoped that by that time
something definite would be known as to the prospects of war with Spain.

Our course took us close past the easternmost extremity of Portland--the
highest point of the miscalled "island"; and by the time that we had
drifted across the bay--for our progress could scarcely be called more
than drifting--the fog had settled down so thickly that, had we not by
good fortune happened to have heard two men calling to each other
ashore, we should have plumped the schooner on to the rocks at the base
of the cliff before seeing the land. Even as it was, it was touch and
go with us; for although the helm was put hard a-starboard at the first
sound of the mens' voices, we were so close in that, as the schooner
swerved heavily round, we just grazed a great rock, the head of which
was sticking out of the water. But we now knew pretty well where we
were, and hauling well off the land, out of further danger, we shaped a
course that would take us well clear of the Shambles, and so stretched
away athwart the Channel.

By the time that we had hauled off the land about a mile it had fallen
as dark as a wolf's mouth, with a fog so thick that, what with it and
the darkness together, it was impossible to see as far as the foremast
from the main rigging, while the wind had fallen so light that our
canvas flapped and rustled with every heave of the schooner upon the
short Channel swell; yet, by heaving the log, we found that the
_Dolphin_ was slinking through the water at the rate of close upon three
knots in the hour, while she was perfectly obedient to her helm. The
most profound silence pre