ctly visible; but no further movement had been
observed on board her, and I began to dread the possibility that, after
all, our appearance upon the scene might prove to be too late. So
anxious, indeed, did I now feel that, although Forbes several times
looked aft at me, and then meaningly aloft at the studding-sails, I
would not give the order to start tack or sheet, but held on with
everything to the very last moment, feeling pretty confident that, in
such light weather, we might safely round-to all standing.

At length, after what seemed an interminable interval, we arrived within
half a mile of the boat; and now the barque was kept slightly away, in
order that we might have room to round-to and shoot up alongside the
small craft without giving her occupants the trouble to out oars and
pull to us. This brought her out clear of our starboard bow, and
afforded us on the poop a better opportunity than we had yet enjoyed of
scrutinising her from that position; of which Sir Edgar, who had again
joined me, took the fullest advantage, keeping his binoculars levelled
upon her without a moment's intermission. Yet all this time no further
movement had been observed on board her, although she was now so close
to us that, had such been made, it could not possibly have escaped our
notice. She was a ship's gig, about twenty-four feet long, painted
green, and she floated too light in the water to have many people in
her. She was rigged with a single short mast, stepped well forward,
upon which an old and well-worn lugsail was set--or, rather, _hoisted_--
for the tack had parted, the sheet was adrift, and the yard hung nearly
up and down the mast, the foot of the sail hanging over the port side
and trailing in the water. Her rudder was shipped, and swayed idly from
side to side as the boat rocked gently upon the low swell and the small
ripples that followed her in her slow drift before the dying breeze.
Her paint looked faded and sea-washed in the ruddy glow of the setting
sun; her bottom, along the water-line, showed a grey coating of
incipient barnacles, and there were many other indications about her
that to a sailor's eye was proof conclusive of the fact that she had
been in the water for several days.

As I noted these particulars through the telescope, while we were
approaching her, my attention was arrested by a movement and occasional
swirl in the water round about her; and, looking more intently, I
presently descried