sit down and close her eyes, as if weak or
asleep. Then he took up his post beside her.

In a quarter of an hour the last bullock was on board. The gangway
was at once hauled in, the hawsers thrown off, and the sails let
drop and, in another minute, the vessel was gliding away from the
wharf. The wind was nearly due west, and the sheets were hauled in
as she was headed across the Straits. It was half an hour before
the sailors' work was all done. Several of them came up on to the
fo'castle and began twisting cigarettes, and one at once entered
into conversation with Bob.

"Is the boy ill?" he said.

"Yes, he has been ill, but is better now. It would have been better
if he could have stopped a few days longer, but he was pining to
get home. He won't have far to go when we get to Algeciras and, no
doubt, I shall be able to get him a lift in some cart that will be
bringing provisions to the camp."

The talk at once turned on the siege, the sailors expressing their
certainty that the Rock would soon be taken. Bob had moved away
from Amy, as if to allow her to sleep, undisturbed by the
conversation.

"There is a brig running down the Straits, at a good speed," one of
the sailors said, when they were half way across. "It is a nice
breeze for her."

Bob looked at the craft. She was about a mile away, and by the
course they were steering--almost at right angles--would come very
near to them. There was something familiar in her appearance, and
he looked at her intently, examining every sail and shroud. Then
doubt became certainty, as his eye fell upon a small patch in one
of the cloths of the topgallant sail.

It was the Antelope. One of the Spanish shot had passed through the
topgallant sail and--as that was the only injury that sail had
received--the bit had been cut out, and a fresh one put in, before
she sailed again from Gibraltar. She was flying Spanish colours.

His heart beat fast. Would she overhaul them, or pass without
taking notice of them--seeing that the polacre was a small one, and
not likely to be a valuable prize?

The vessels approached each other quickly. The course the Antelope
was taking would carry her some length or two behind the Spaniard.
Bob hesitated whether to hail her, as she came along. If his hail
was not heard he would, of course, be detected, and his plans
entirely spoilt; and with the wind blowing straight across, and he
in the bow, it would be by no means certain that his hail wou