place, joined me near
the break of the poop.

"Well, sir, there is _something_ away there to windward," was the reply,
"but what it is I couldn't very well make out, the sea was breaking so
heavy over it. Sometimes it has the look of a dismasted and waterlogged
ship; and then again it takes the look of a craft on her beam-ends, with
her yardarms just showing above the water; and once or twice I thought I
could catch a glimpse of something like an attempt to make a signal by
waving a white cloth or something of the sort. But that may have been
only the glancing of the flying foam in the sunshine."

"How did she bear when you were aloft?" I inquired.

"Broad on our weather-beam," answered Roberts.

"And how far distant do you judge her to be?"

"About a matter of nine miles, I should say. I suppose you'll be taking
a look at her, sir?"

"Most certainly," said I. "We will stand on for a quarter of an hour or
so, when we will go about, if you think we should then be able to fetch
her. Meanwhile, we may as well run our ensign up to the peak, to let
the people on board--if there are any--know that we have seen them."

"Yes, sir," assented Roberts; "I should think that in that time we ought
to have head-reached far enough to fetch her. Shall we get a small drag
at the topsail halliards? She will bear another inch or two."

"Very well," I agreed; and away trundled the sympathetic Roberts forward
to muster the hands.

The extra "inch or two" of topsail that he proposed to give her resolved
itself into a liberal two feet of hoist; under which augmented canvas
the barque bounded from sea to sea like a mad thing, completely burying
her lee rail with every roll, and causing the gale to fairly howl
through her rigging when she recovered herself; while a whole acre of
dazzling snow-white foam hissed and stormed and roared out from under
her lee bow, and glanced past the side at what looked like railway speed
when she stooped to it under the influence of wind and wave together;
the spray meanwhile flying over the weather cat-head in such a perfect
deluge that the whole fore deck was knee-deep in water, while the
foresail was drenched halfway up to the yard, and even the weather clew
of the mainsail came in for a liberal share. To leeward the shrouds
sagged limp and loose at every roll of the ship, while to windward they
were as taut as bars; and it was by no means without apprehension that I
contemplated the possibi