us?" he demanded in a low voice, addressing the crew.

"Yes, sir," answered a voice from the forecastle. "I looked directly
that I heard Mr Bowen sing out, and I fancied that I saw something
loomin' up dark through the fog on the weather quarter."

"Another fancy!" ejaculated the skipper. "However," he continued, "you
may be right, Mr Bowen, after all. How far do you suppose the stranger
to have been away from us?"

"Probably a matter of three miles or thereabout," I answered. "The
smaller craft would perhaps be a mile, or a mile and a half astern of
her."

"Then," said the skipper, "we will haul the fore-sheet to windward, let
our jib-sheets flow, and wait a quarter of an hour to see what comes of
it. If you are correct in your surmise, Mr Bowen, we ought to see
something of these strangers of yours by that time."

"And I have no doubt we shall, sir," answered I. "And if I may be
allowed to offer a suggestion, it is that we should bring the schooner
to the wind, so that she may eat out to windward of the Indiaman, all
ready for bearing up and running her aboard when she heaves in sight."

"A very good idea, Mr Bowen! we will do so," answered the skipper.

The main- and fore-sheets were accordingly flattened in, when the
schooner luffed up to about south-east, and slowly forged to windward,
athwart what I believed to be the track of the Indiaman.

Meanwhile, the dawn was coming slowly, while the fog was gradually
thinning away under the influence of the freshening breeze, so that we
were by this time able to distinguish the heads of the breaking waves at
a distance of fully half a mile. As for me, I kept my eyes intently
fixed upon the grey cloud of vapour that went drifting away to leeward
past our weather quarter; and presently, when we had been hove-to about
ten minutes, I caught sight of a thickening in the fog thereaway that,
even as I looked, began to grow darker and assume a definite shape.

"There she is, sir!" I exclaimed, pointing out the darkening blot to
the skipper; and by the time that he had found it, that same blot had
strengthened into the misty outline of a large ship under studding-
sails, running before the wind, and steering a course that would bring
her diagonally athwart our stern, and within biscuit-toss of our lee
quarter.

"Ay! there she is, sure enough!" responded the skipper eagerly. "Now,"
he continued, "the next thing is to find out whether she is the Indiaman
or not, wi