aces, at the base of the mass of
blankness, it would dart out in swift racings of shadow that made one
think of the feelers of some gigantic marine spider, probing under its
cobweb as though feeling its way along. In a few minutes the cloud
drove down over us with a loud whistling of wind, and the water close
to the boat's side ran in short, small seas, every head of it hissing;
but to within the range of a biscuit toss all was flying, glistening
obscurity, with occasional bursts of denser thicknesses which almost
hid one end of the boat from the other. It was about six o'clock in
the afternoon, and there might be yet another hour of sunshine.

"'Vast rowing!" says I presently, "you may keep the oars over, but
there's no good in pulling, short of keeping her head to wind. This is
too thick to last."

"Ain't so sure of that," says Fallows, taking a slow look round at the
smother, "I 've been in these here seas for two days running in
weather arter this pattern."

"Pity we didn't stay aboard the barque," says Jackson.

"A plague on your pities!" I cried. "I know my duty, I believe.
Suppose we _had_ stayed aboard the barque, we stood to be separated
from the brig in this breeze and muckiness, and was her skipper
by-and-bye going to sail in search of the _Hindoo Merchant_?"

"A gun!" cries Fallows.

"That'll be the brig," says I, catching the dull thud of the explosion
of a nine-pounder which the _Hindoo Merchant_ carried on her
quarter-deck.

"Seems to me as though it sounded from yonder," says Jackson, looking
away over the starboard beam of the boat.

"What have ye there, men?" says I, nodding at a bundle of canvas under
the amidship thwart.

"Ship's bread," answered Jackson, with a note of sulkiness in his
voice. "It was hove to us on my asking for a bite. She was a liberal
barque. The cask's more 'n three-quarters full."

We hung upon our oars listening and waiting. There was a second gun
ten minutes after the first had been fired, and that was the last we
heard. The report was thin and distant, but whether ahead or astern I
could not have guessed by harkening. I kept up my own and endeavoured
to inspirit the hearts of the others by saying that this fog which had
come down in a moment would end in a moment, that it was all clear sky
above with plenty of moonlight for us in the night if it should happen
that the sun went down upon us thus, that Captain Blow was not going
to lose us and his boat and the cask