scream proceeding from their throats: as if the object
attracting them excited either their curiosity or some passion of a more
turbulent character.

Their evolutions,--constantly returning towards a centre,--guided the
eye of the observer until it rested on an object just visible above the
sheen of the water. The colour of this object rendered it the more easy
of being distinguished amidst the blue water that surrounded it; for it
was blacker than anything which the sea produces,--unless it were the
bone of the giant _Mysticetus_. Its shape, too--almost a perfect
sphere--had something to do in its identification: for William was able
to identify it, and by a process of negative reasoning. It was not the
black albatross, the frigate-bird, nor the booby. Though of like
colour, there was no bird of such form as that. There was neither beast
nor fish belonging to the sea that could show such a shape above its
surface. That sable globe, rounded like a sea-hedgehog, or a
Turk's-head clew, and black as a tarred tackle-block, could be nothing
else than the woolly pate of Snowball, the sea-cook!

A little beyond were two other objects of dark colour and founded shape;
but neither so dark nor so round as that already identified. They must
be the heads of the English sailor and Lilly Lalee. They appeared to be
equally objects of attraction to the gulls, that alternately flew from
one to the other, or kept hovering above them,--and continuously
uttering their shrill, wild screams,--now more distinctly heard by
little William, clinging high up on the mast of the _Catamaran_.

CHAPTER FORTY TWO.

ONCE MORE ABOARD.

The sailor-lad did not remain longer on the top of the mast than just to
satisfy himself that what he saw were his companions, still afloat and
alive. They were not at such a distance neither as to render it
altogether impossible for them to recover their lost way; and,
stimulated by this hope, little William determined upon continuing his
efforts to assist them.

Gliding back upon the planks of the raft, he laid hold of the detached
oar; and once more plying it as a paddle, he endeavoured to propel the
_Catamaran_ up the wind.

It is true he made but slight progress in this direction but he had the
satisfaction of knowing that the craft held her ground, and something
more; as he could tell from the fact of the casks last set loose by him,
falling a little to leeward. This showed that he must himsel