n. I hastened down to the
pilot-house to consult the Coast Pilot. I reviewed the course we had
followed after leaving the wrecked bark. By our reckoning we were about
twenty miles to the southward of Carysfort Light when we headed the
steamer to the eastward.

We had kept the screw turning all the time, and I supposed we had been
making some headway during the five hours we had been on this tack.
What was the light, then?

We were headed directly into the Bahama Islands, and I knew we had not
gone far enough to place any light in those islands on our port
quarter. The description in the book of Carysfort Light corresponded
with what I had made out by observation.

"We are about ten miles to the south-east of Carysfort Light," I said
to Washburn, when I had satisfied myself of the fact.

"Impossible! That would put us about where we were when you called all
hands last night!" exclaimed the mate.

"The Light is about where it was when we began to go to the southward
at ten last evening," I replied.

"But we have been going to the southward and eastward for the last five
hours."

"It does not appear that we have gone at all," I continued, looking
over the pages of the book. "We have been drifting all the time. The
steamer is in the Gulf Stream, and that, with the fierce wind, has
carried her a long distance from where I supposed she was. I find that
in a strong easterly wind the Gulf Stream sets to the westward, and
runs in among the Keys. I have no doubt now that this is the reason why
the bark struck last night on the rocks to the southward of French
Reef."

"It appears from what you say that we have not carried steam enough to
prevent us from being drifted to the westward as well as to the
northward," added Washburn.

"That is the fact: we have been drifting about north-northwest. In a
few hours more we should have been on the reef. Ring the speed-bell."

It was plain enough by this time, when it was almost broad daylight,
that the force of the gale was spent. In less than an hour the wind
subsided entirely, and the wind whirled to the south, then to the west,
and finally settled in the north-west. We made our course to the
southward. The clouds rolled away, and the sun rose bright and
beautiful after one of the hardest nights I had ever known.

The wind began to freshen from the north-west, and at six o'clock we
had all sail on her. We all wondered what had become of the Islander.
Captain Blastblow was e