ack also, since we should
then be standing directly after him; while if he had not tacked, we
should still be doing right to heave about, since even in that case we
should probably see something of him from our mast-head when the moon
rose, as she would in less than half-an-hour. We therefore at once put
the helm down and hove round on the starboard tack, keeping the schooner
as close to the wind as she would lie, while still allowing her to go
along through the water.

A faint brightening in the sky by and by announced the welcome approach
of the moon upon the scene; and shortly afterwards the beautiful planet
herself, considerably shrunken from her full-orbed splendour, rose
slowly into view above the horizon, her curtailed disc showing of a
deep, ruddy orange-colour through the dense, humid vapours of the lower
atmosphere. Two hands were at once sent up to the topgallant-yard to
take a look round; but even after they had been there an hour--by which
time the moon had risen high enough to give us plenty of light--they
failed to discover any sign of the barque or anything else; and we were
at length reluctantly compelled to admit that we had been very cleverly
tricked, and that our cunning neighbour had fairly given us the slip.

"But I'll not give him up, even now!" exclaimed Ryan, when this
conviction had fairly forced itself upon us. "Come down below, Dugdale,
and let us reason this thing out."

We accordingly descended to our snug little cabin and seated ourselves
at the table, Ryan producing a sheet of paper, a scale, and a pencil
wherewith to graphically illustrate our line of reasoning.

"Now, here," said he, drawing an arrow near one margin of the paper, "is
the wind, coming out at west as nearly as may be; and here," laying the
scale upon the paper, measuring off a distance, and making two pencil
dots, "are the positions of the barque and the schooner when the former
was last seen. Now, I estimate that the barque was going about eight
and a half knots, and we were reeling off nine by the log at that time;
and this state of affairs continued at least until the light was seen,
which was about half-an-hour after we lost sight of our friend.
Consequently, when the light was first seen, the schooner was here"--
making another dot--"and the barque there," making a fourth.

"Now, what would the blagguard be most likely to do when he had safely
launched his raft? He knew that it would go skimming away to leew