I had at first discovered her. And it presently
dawned upon me that she had another peculiarity, namely, that of an
opacity sufficiently dense to temporarily blot out any low-lying star
that the movement of the boat happened to bring into line with her. The
full significance of these peculiarities at length became suggestive,
and it began to dawn upon me that possibly the craft out yonder might
not, after all, be a phantom; she might be the vessel destined to afford
us rescue and salvation; the vessel for which I had all along been
looking, and the eventual appearance of which I had so frequently and so
confidently predicted to Miss Onslow.

CHAPTER SIX.

THE DERELICT.

The mere possibility that rescue might actually be at hand acted as a
tonic upon me, imparting renewed life and hope, and clearing away the
more than half-delirious fancies that had clouded and bemuddled my
brain; thus enabling me once more to think and act rationally. I pulled
myself resolutely together, collected my wandering wits, and peered long
and anxiously at the shadowy shape that had, as it were, crystallised
out of the surrounding darkness; then I looked away from it toward other
points of the horizon to see whether it repeated itself elsewhere. No;
it was peculiar to one definite spot; and I no longer had any doubt but
that there was a certain tangible something, which could only be a ship,
and that I must quickly determine upon the steps necessary to intercept
her.

The first thing was to ascertain in what direction she was steering.
When I first discovered her she was dead to windward, and since then she
had drawn aft a trifle, being now about two points before my weather
beam. She could not have overtaken me, because in that case she would
have passed so close as to have all but run over the boat, and I could
not have failed to see her; and the fact that she had slowly and
imperceptibly grown up out of the darkness argued that she was not
sailing away from me. Nor could she be sailing toward me, because in
that case she would have grown in size and distinctness much more
rapidly than she had done. Nor, strangely enough, did she seem to be
crossing my course in either direction, the slight change in her
bearings being accounted for by the progress of the boat. Possibly she
might be hove-to; although it was difficult to imagine why she should be
so, unless she had lost a man overboard. But if that were the case she
would be