f
the contrivance by which we had been so cleverly tricked. It was in
fact nothing more than a raft composed of five nine-inch planks laid
parallel to each other with a space of about a foot between each, and
firmly secured together by a couple of stout cross-pieces nailed athwart
the whole concern. The fore-ends of the planks had been sawn away to
the shape of a sharp wedge to facilitate the movement of the raft
through the water, and on the foremost cross-piece had been rigged an
oar for a mast, upon which was set a hastily-contrived squaresail, made
out of a piece of old tarpaulin. To the head of the mast was securely
lashed an old lantern with a short length of candle, still burning, in
it; the lantern being cunningly draped in red bunting to represent the
appearance of a lamp shining through a curtain. And the whole
contrivance was rendered self-steering by the attachment of a few
fathoms of line to the after-end of the middle plank, at the other
extremity of which a drogue, consisting of a short length of plank, was
attached. This drogue had the effect of keeping the raft running dead
before the wind, and it travelled at a very respectable pace, too--quite
five knots an hour, we estimated its speed at--for the sail was quite a
big one for so small an affair; and since we had been steering for it
for just about an hour, it meant that we had been decoyed some five
miles to leeward of our proper course.

The question now was: Where was the barque? It did not take us very
long to make up our minds upon this point. It was pretty evident that
since her skipper had been at so much pains to entice us away down to
leeward, he would have held his wind all this time; and to windward
therefore must we look for him. Whether, however, he had tacked and
stood away to the westward immediately after launching his raft, or
whether he had held on upon the port tack to the northward, we could not
possibly tell, for a diligent and prolonged use of our night-glasses
failed to reveal the slightest indication of his whereabouts. Ryan,
however, was not long in arriving upon a conclusion in the matter. He
argued that if he had tacked we ought also to tack forthwith, because,
if we stood on as we were going until the moon rose, we might run out of
sight of him; whereas, if he had _not_ tacked, he would be at that
moment somewhere about broad on our weather bow. If therefore he _had_
tacked, we should be doing the right thing to t