e what it was; it could be but one thing--a ship, and I forthwith
hailed--

"On deck, there! there's a strange sail about a mile distant, sir, broad
on our starboard quarter!"

"Thank you, Mr Courtenay," promptly responded the "second."

"What do you make her out to be?"

"It is impossible at present to say anything definite about her, sir," I
answered. "I saw her but for a second, and then only very indistinctly,
but she loomed up through the fog like a craft of about our own size."

"Very well, sir," answered Hennesey; "stay where you are, and keep a
sharp lookout for her next appearance."

Once more I returned the stereotyped, "Ay, ay, sir!" as I sent my
glances searching round the ship for further openings. The next that
overtook us swept down upon our port quarter; it was fully a mile and a
half wide, and when it bore about four points abaft the beam another
shape slid into it, not vague and shadowy this time, as the other shape
had been, but clearly distinct--a frigate, unmistakably, under a similar
spread of canvas to our own, and as nearly as possible our own size. So
close indeed was the resemblance that for a second or two I was disposed
to fancy that by some strange trick of light and reflection the fog was
treating me to a picture of the old _Althea_ herself, but a more
steadfast scrutiny soon dispelled the illusion. There were certain
unmistakable points of difference between this second apparition and
ourselves, some of which were so strongly characteristic that I at once
set her down as a French frigate.

The plot was thickening, and it was not wholly without a certain feeling
of exhilaration that I again hailed the deck--

"A frigate broad on our port quarter, sir, with a very Frenchified look
about her!"

"Thank you again, Mr Courtenay," answered Hennesey, with an
unmistakable ring of delight in his jovial Irish accent, which, by the
way, had a trick of growing more pronounced under the influence of
excitement. "Ah, true for you, there she is," he continued, "I have
her! Mr Hudson, have the kindness to jump below and fetch me my glass,
will ye, and look alive, you shmall anatomy!"

A gentle ripple of subdued laughter from the forecastle at this sally of
our genial "second" floated up to me from the forecastle, a glimpse of
which I could just catch under the foot of the fore-topsail, and I could
see that the men were all alive down there with pleasurable excitement
at the prospect of a