as the jib-boom
end.

The fog made Mr Hennesey, our second lieutenant and the officer of the
watch, uneasy,--as well it might, for we were in the early spring of the
year 1805, and Great Britain was at war with France, Spain, and Holland,
at that time the three most formidable naval powers in the world, next
to ourselves, and the chances were that every second ship we might meet
would be an enemy,--and at length, just as seven bells were being
struck, he turned to me and said--

"Mr Courtenay, you have good eyes; just jump up on to the main-royal
yard, will you, and take a look round. This fog packs close, but I do
not believe it reaches as high as our mastheads, and I feel curious to
know whether anything has drifted within sight of us during the night."

I touched my hat, and forthwith made my way into the main rigging, glad
of even a journey aloft to break the dismal monotony of the blind, grey,
stirless morning, and in due time swung myself up on to the slender
yard, the sail of which had been clewed up but not furled. But, alas!
the worthy second luff was mistaken for once in his life; it was every
whit as thick up there as it was down on deck, and not a thing could I
see but the fore and mizzenmasts, with their intricacies of standing and
running rigging, their tapering yards, and their broad spaces of wet and
drooping canvas, hanging limp and looming spectrally through the ghostly
mist-wreaths. I was about to hail the deck and report the failure of my
experimental journey, but was checked in the very act by feeling
something like a faint stir in the damp, heavy air about me; another
moment and a dim yellow smudge became visible on the port beam, which I
presently recognised as the newly risen sun struggling to pierce with
his beams the ponderous masses of white vapour that were now slowly
working as though stirred by some subtle agency. By imperceptible
degrees the pallid vision of the sun brightened and strengthened, and
presently I became conscious of a faint but distinct movement of the air
from off the port quarter, to which the cloths of the sail against which
my feet dangled responded with a gentle rustling movement.

"On deck, there!" I shouted, "it is still as thick as a hedge up here,
sir, but it seems inclined to clear, and I believe we are going to have
a breeze out from the north-east presently."

"So much the better," answered the second luff, ignoring the first half
of my communication; "