uls with exasperation; for they were distinctly hindering
our progress, while we could see no valid reason why they should exist
at all. They had the appearance of having sprung up solely to delay us,
and for no other purpose whatever. More than once, when I felt
exceptionally impatient at our miserably slow rate of progress, I had it
on the tip of my tongue to propose that we should again take to the
oars; but I did not actually speak the words, for in the first place I
doubted whether the gain in speed would be sufficient to justify the
expenditure of strength, and in the next place our hands were by this
time in such a frightful condition of rawness that the idea of proposing
what would make them very much worse seemed to smack of downright
cruelty, unless I could urge some more valid reason than the mere desire
to get ahead a little faster. And our situation just then was scarcely
desperate enough for that.

It was very shortly after midday, and we were all gathered aft partaking
of the meal that we dignified with the name of dinner, when the
boatswain, who was sitting on the after thwart, facing me, suddenly
paused in the act of conveying a piece of biscuit to his mouth, stared
intently over my shoulder for a moment, and then sprang to his feet,
shading his eyes with his hand.

"What is it, Murdock?" I asked, turning as I spoke in the direction
toward which he was gazing, "do you--?"

"Sail ho!" interrupted the boatswain, pointing eagerly with his hand.
"Do ye see her, Mr Temple, sir?"

"Ay, I do," I answered, as I caught sight of a faint pearly gleam afar
off on the north-eastern horizon. "Mr Cunningham, will you kindly lend
me your telescope for a moment?"

"Certainly, with pleasure," answered Cunningham, producing the
instrument from his pocket. It was not a very big affair, being only
about six inches long by perhaps an inch and a half in diameter, but it
was a three-draw tube, measuring about one foot nine inches long when
fully extended, and, for its size, was the most splendid instrument I
had ever used. I quickly brought it to bear upon the distant gleam,
which the lenses instantly resolved into the heads of the fore and main
royals of a craft--either a barque or a brig--standing to the southward.
When I had finished with the instrument the boatswain took a squint
through it, and after him the carpenter and the sailmaker; and when they
had had their turn Cunningham applied it to his eye. As the