et
your oye go off that light for a single inshtant if ye value your shkin.
Keep her away a bit"--to the man at the helm--"let her go off a point!
So! steady as you go! There, Masther Freddy, the light is right
forninst your jib-boom end now. Mind that ye kape it there. We're
certainly gaining on her." And, patting the lad affectionately on the
shoulder, the warm-hearted Irishman turned and beckoned me to follow him
down into the cabin.

We had been below about half-an-hour, and were getting well forward with
our dinner, when we heard the voices of Pierrepoint and the
quarter-master in earnest conversation over the open skylight, and an
occasional word or two that reached us seemed to indicate that they were
in doubt about something. We both pricked up our ears a little; and
presently we heard Pierrepoint ejaculate in a tone of impatience and
with a stamp of his foot on the deck--

"I'll be shot if I can understand it at all, Somers; I shall call the
captain."

"I really think I would, sir, if I was you. I don't believe that's the
barque at all; it's some circumwenting trick that they've been playing
us, that's my opinion!"

At this Ryan started to his feet and, hailing through the skylight,
asked--

"What is the matter, Mr Pierrepoint; have you lost sight of the light?"

"No, sir," answered poor Freddy, in a tone of distress; "the light is
still straight ahead of us, and we seem to be nearing it fast, but I
can't make out anything like the loom of the sails or hull of the
barque, and if she is there I think we ought to see her by this time.
The red light shows quite plainly in the glass."

"I will join you on deck and have a look at it," exclaimed Ryan; and,
rising from the table, he sprang up the companion-ladder three steps at
a time, I following close at his heels.

Yes; there was the light, sure enough, right ahead of us; and a glance
aloft as well as the feel of the breeze on our faces told us in an
instant that the schooner had been further kept away, and was now
running well off the wind, although the change had been so gradual that
we had not noticed it while sitting in the cabin. Ryan took the glass
from Pierrepoint and brought it to bear on the light.

"Yes," he remarked, with the telescope still at his eye, "that is the
light, beyond a doubt; but, as you say, Mr Pierrepoint, I can see no
sign of the barque herself. Yet she _must_ be there, for that light is
obviously moving, and I observe