I passed forward along the starboard side of the deck, noticing
as I did so that there was a faint lightening in the fog away to
windward, showing that the dawn was approaching; and as I turned on the
forecastle to go aft again, I observed that the fog was thinning away
famously on the weather quarter. As I walked aft I kept my eyes
intently fixed on this thin patch, which appeared to be a small but
widening break in the curtain of vapour that enveloped us, for it was
evidently drifting along with the wind. I had reached as far aft as the
main rigging, still staring into the break, when I suddenly halted, for
it struck me that there was a small, faint blotch of darker texture in
the heart of it, away about three points on our weather quarter. Before
I could be quite certain about the matter, however, the blotch, if such
it was, had become merged and lost again in the thicker body of fog that
followed in the track of the opening. But while I was still debating
within myself whether I should say anything about what I fancied I had
seen, I became aware of a much larger and darker blot slowly looming up
through the leeward portion of the break, and apparently drifting across
it to windward, though this effect was, I knew, due to the leeward drift
of the break. This time I felt that there was no mistake about it, and
I accordingly cried:

"Sail ho! a large ship about a point on our weather quarter!"

And I hurried aft to point it out to the skipper before it should vanish
again. He looked in the direction toward which I was pointing, but was
unable to see anything, his eyes being dazzled in consequence of his
having been staring, in a fit of abstraction, at the illuminated
compass-card in the binnacle. Neither could Lovell see anything; and
while I was still endeavouring to direct their gaze to it, it
disappeared.

"Are you quite certain that your eyes were not deceiving you, Mr
Bowen?" demanded the skipper rather pettishly.

"Absolutely certain, sir," I replied. "And what is more, I believe it
to be the Indiaman; for just before sighting her I fancied I saw another
and smaller craft about two points further to windward, and astern of
the bigger ship; and I am now of opinion that what I saw was a lugger."

"Ay," retorted the skipper; "you fancied you saw a lugger; and so,
perhaps, under the circumstances, would naturally fancy also that you
saw the Indiaman. Did anybody else see anything like a sail astern of