hair beside him, all ready to look through; and, once in a while, he
took it up and looked, very carefully, all along the edge of the ocean.
But, no matter how hard he looked, he couldn't see any ships. There was
a fisherman going out, but fishermen didn't take pilots, and, if they
had, it was too late, anyway. And he saw another small vessel coming in,
pretty soon after the fisherman had gone. It was the Portland packet.
She didn't take a pilot, either, but her captain was a pilot.

[Illustration]

John Wilson was getting tired of sitting by that window, although it was
a very pleasant place on a summer afternoon. He got up and stretched
sleepily, for it was sleepy work sitting there, doing nothing. Then he
thought that he might as well take a last look through the glass, before
he went, and he lifted it and held it against the frame of the window
and looked.

"Hello!" he said to himself. "The skysails and royals of something. It's
a brig. By the cut of her sails, she'll be the _Industry_. Haven't heard
of her since she was spoken, going out, five months ago. She must have
made a quick passage."

Then he put down the glass and hurried down to the sloop.

"Hurry up, Joe," he said. "The old _Industry_'s coming in. And she's in
a hurry, too. That Cap'n Sol's carrying royals and skysails. That's all
that showed. Like enough he's got stu'n'sails on her, too. He seems to
want to get in to-night; and we've got to hurry, for she'll keep right
on to his wharf, pilot or no pilot."

"He hasn't been reported at Manila," said Joe.

"No," said John Wilson, "he hasn't. But he'll report his own arrival
there. There's few can carry sail with Cap'n Sol."

[Illustration: "THE SLOOP WAS ON HER WAY"]

The sloop was on her way, by that time, out to the channel and down to
the bay. She was rather fast, for such a small vessel, for the pilot who
had the fastest boat had the best chance; and she had a good deal of
sail for a boat of her size. But she couldn't sail as fast as the
_Industry_. She met the _Industry_ about five miles out in the bay,
and John Wilson saw that Captain Sol had put a flag in the rigging, to
show that he wanted a pilot.

Captain Sol had the sails fixed so that the _Industry_ wouldn't go ahead
very fast, and the sloop came alongside and John Wilson scrambled
aboard. The sloop wasn't tied to the ship at all, and she didn't stay
alongside as long as a minute; then she was sailing off again, towards
Boston. For