rather
angry-looking sky, and as the darkness gradually melted away from off
the face of the weltering waters I made out the canvas of a large ship,
some eight miles off, to leeward. She had passed us about an hour
earlier, probably not more than three miles away; and had there only
been daylight I should doubtless have succeeded in attracting her
attention. As it was, there was no hope of any such thing now; she was
sailing away from instead of toward us, and sailors seldom look astern;
their attention is mostly directed to what lies ahead. And even had it
been otherwise, it was too late now to think of making ourselves seen;
she was too far off; and chasing her was quite out of the question, for
she was bowling along under topgallant studding-sails, making the utmost
of a fair wind, while we dared show no more than double-reefed canvas.
Fortunately, Miss Onslow was sleeping again, and did not see the
stranger, which had run out of sight beyond the horizon by the time that
my companion next awoke, so I did not mention the circumstance. The
appearance of this vessel, however, was cheering and encouraging,
inasmuch as it tended to show that I was still in the track of shipping.

As the day wore slowly on the wind steadily freshened until it was
blowing a single-reefed topsail breeze, that brought with it a
corresponding increase in the height and run of the seas, which at
length became so dangerous that I dared no longer keep the boat under
sail, but was constrained to douse the canvas and use it, with the mast
and oars, as a floating anchor for the boat. Riding to these, at the
full scope of our rather long painter, we were much more easy and
comfortable; but this advantage was discounted to a great extent by the
fact that during the day two other vessels passed us--at too great a
distance to allow of our attracting their attention, low down in the
water as we were, and with no means of signalling to them, yet not so
far off but that we might have been seen had there been a pair of sharp
eyes aboard; while if it had been possible for us to carry sail, we
might have easily intercepted either of them. It was a cruelly bitter
disappointment to us to see these two craft go sliding along the horizon
while I wore myself out with unavailing efforts to attract their
attention. My companion bore her disappointment bravely; she even chid
me gently when I sank down exhausted into the bottom of the boat, with a
bitter curse