away."

"And how does she bear?" I asked.

"Dead to wind'ard as ever she can be," was the cheering reply. "And
headin' for us just as straight as she can come. Hurrah, my buckos!
There's no mistake about it this time; she's boun' to pick us up, unless
she happens to be another of them there puddin'-headed Portugees what
don't seem to believe in pickin' up pore shipwrecked mariners," Sails
ended, with a sudden note of disgust in his voice.

"Portugee or no Portugee, she will pick us up; I'll see to that," said
I. "We'll not give her the chance to refuse; we'll just lie doggo where
we are until she is within a mile or two of us, and then we'll up lug
and run her aboard, whether her people like it or not."

"Ay, ay, that's your sort, Mr Temple," agreed the boatswain. "No more
slippin' past and wavin' hands for me; if they don't want to pick us up,
we'll just have to make 'em, that's all. I've had enough of boat
sailin' to last me for the rest of me bloomin' life, and enough of
sleepin' on thwarts, too. I means to sleep in a dry fo'c'sle to-night
in spite of all the Portugee swines in creation."

"All right, Simpson," I hailed. "You had better come down now and get
your breakfast. By the time that we have finished, yonder craft will be
visible to all of us, and then we shall be able to judge what is best to
be done."

We made a good hearty breakfast that morning, both eating and drinking a
little more than our strict allowance, I am afraid, for we all seemed to
be possessed of the same undoubted conviction that, with the appearance
of the stranger to windward, our troubles were now all over, and that
therefore the necessity to husband our limited resources carefully no
longer existed.

The strange sail appeared to be a fairly fast craft, for before we had
quite finished our breakfast the head of her canvas appeared above the
horizon to us, even though we were still sitting upon the thwarts, and
we immediately brought Cunningham's telescope to bear upon her. The
first glimpse that I caught of her through the lenses satisfied me that
she was a small vessel, the quickness and violence of her movements--for
she was rolling heavily--bearing unmistakable evidence of that fact; and
ten minutes later we discovered her to be topsail-schooner rigged. She
was evidently making the utmost of the fair wind, for she had topmast
and lower studdingsails set on both sides; and she was coming dead down
the wind direct for u