he
colonel, looking more amiable than he had before done, "and that is what
I suppose you call a poetical description, missie. Well, as it does not
convey a bad idea of what we have before our eyes, it must pass for
something of the sort, I suppose. What do you say, Mister Bowse?"

Now, although Bowse had not entirely comprehended all that Ada had said,
he felt that he was called on to give an answer, and accordingly looked
round the horizon, as if to satisfy himself that her description was
correct. He had taken a survey of the whole expanse of the sea to the
westward, and his eye had gradually swept round to the east, when,
instead of turning round to answer, he kept it fixed on a distant spot
just seen over the weather or larboard bow. Shifting his position a
little, he placed his telescope to his eye, and took a steady gaze.

"That's her, I can't help thinking," he muttered. "But what she wants
out there, I can't say."

To the surprise of Ada, he walked forward, and called his mate to his
side.

"Here, Mr Timmins, just tell me what you think of that chap out there,
over the weather cat-head," he said, giving his officer the glass.

The mate took the instrument, and looked as he was directed.

"She's a lateen-rigged craft standing on a wind athwart our course,
sir," answered the mate instantly, as if there was no difficulty in
ascertaining thus much.

"That one may see with half an eye, Mr Timmins; but do you see nothing
unusual about her?"

"I can't say that I see any difference between her and the craft, which
one is always meeting with in these seas," answered the mate. "Her
canvas stands well, and looks very white as we see her beam almost on to
us. She seems one of those vessels with a name I never could manage to
speak, which trade along the coast of Sicily and Italy, and come over to
Malta."

"By the way she is standing, she will pass at no great distance to
leeward of us, and if she was to haul up a little, she would just about
reach us," observed the master in a tone of interrogation.

"Just about it, sir," replied the mate.

"Well, then, Mr Timmins, keep your eye on her, and when we get near
her, if there is still light enough left to make her out, tell me if you
have ever seen her before."

The mate, somewhat surprised at the directions his chief had given him,
prepared, however, to obey them, and while he superintended the people
on deck, he constantly kept his telescope fixed on the