direction proposed. During the day
Higson or one of the midshipmen was at the masthead, keeping a look-out
on every side. At night sail was shortened, and the schooner stood
backwards and forwards, now to the northward, now to the southward, so
that no risk might be run of passing the drogher in the dark. Three or
four vessels were fallen in with, but the same answer was received from
all. They had seen nothing of the missing craft. Under other
circumstances they would have been very jolly, for they had a good
supply of West Indian delicacies, put on board by the owner of the
vessel, and had nothing to do but to eat and smoke when they felt
inclined; but they were much too anxious to enjoy themselves.

For another whole day they stood on. Still not a sign of the drogher.
Jack felt greatly inclined to continue the search for a third day. He
reflected, however, on the risk of doing so. It would take very much
longer beating back, and should light winds prevail they might run short
of water and provisions; and though he was ready to undergo any dangers
himself, with the prospect of recovering his brother, he had no right,
he felt, to expose others to them. There was also the possibility of
having to encounter another hurricane, which might try the schooner,
capital sea-boat as she appeared to be. The weather had again become
threatening--dark clouds collected overhead--the wind fell, and as the
little vessel lay roiling her sides under the glass, like swell, down
came the rain, not a mere sprinkling, like that of northern latitudes,
but in a perfect deluge, the huge drops leaping up as they fell, and
flooding the deck. Those who could took refuge below; the rest were wet
to the skin before they could get on their great coats. Just before
sunset a breeze sprang up, and the clouds clearing away left the horizon
more defined and distinct even than usual. Jack himself went aloft to
take a look round, and consider whether he should haul up at once, and
commence the long beat to Antigua, or stand on for a few hours longer.
He had already swept his glass round on every side when, as he turned it
once more towards the south-west, just clear of the setting sun, his eye
fell on a dark object almost on the very verge of the horizon. It
seemed a mere speck, though it might, he thought, be a dead whale, or a
piece of wreck, or only a mass of floating seaweed. His directions to
the man at the helm to steer for it called al