s
the wind came up, it rode behind us like a live thing.

Our distress signal hung sodden, too wet to give more than a dejected
response to the wind that tugged at it. Late in the afternoon we
sighted a large steamer, and when, as darkness came on, she showed no
indication of changing her course, Burns and I sent up a rocket and
blew the fog horn steadily. She altered her course then and came
towards us, and we ran up our code flags for immediate assistance; but
she veered off shortly after, and went on her way. We made no further
effort to attract her attention. Burns thought her a passenger steamer
for the Bermudas, and, as her way was not ours, she could not have been
of much assistance.

One or two of the men were already showing signs of strain. Oleson,
the Swede, developed a chill, followed by fever and a mild delirium,
and Adams complained of sore throat and nausea. Oleson's illness was
genuine enough. Adams I suspected of malingering. He had told the men
he would not go up to the crow's-nest again without a revolver, and
this I would not permit.

Our original crew had numbered nine--with the cook and Williams,
eleven. But the two Negroes were not seamen, and were frightened into
a state bordering on collapse. Of the men actually useful, there were
left only five: Clarke, McNamara, Charlie Jones, Burns, and myself; and
I was a negligible quantity as regarded the working of the ship.

With Burns and myself on guard duty, the burden fell on Clarke,
McNamara, and Jones. A suggestion of mine that we release Singleton
was instantly vetoed by the men. It was arranged, finally, that Clarke
and McNamara take alternate watches at the wheel, and Jones be given
the lookout for the night, to be relieved by either Burns or myself.

I watched the weather anxiously. We were too short-handed to manage
any sort of a gale; and yet, the urgency of our return made it unwise
to shorten canvas too much. It was as well, perhaps, that I had so
much to distract my mind from the situation in the after house.

The second of the series of curious incidents that complicated our
return voyage occurred that night. I was on watch from eight bells
midnight until four in the morning. Jones was in the crow's-nest,
McNamara at the wheel. I was at the starboard forward corner of the
after house, looking over the rail. I thought that I had seen the
lights of a steamer.

The rain had ceased, but the night was still very dark.