ard,
taking us with it; and I therefore think it most probable that he would
tack at once, going off in this direction," laying down a line upon the
paper. "Meanwhile, the raft went scudding away to leeward until we met
it there," making another dot. "Then we tacked, and, laying a point
higher than he can, stood along this line," ruling one carefully in as
he spoke. "Now, we have been travelling along this line, say an hour
and a quarter, which brings us here. But where is the barque? If she
had tacked, and _continued to stand on_ until now, she would be _there_,
eleven or twelve miles away, and we should see her. Supposing, however,
that she continued to stand on as she was going when we last saw her,
she would now be _there_, twenty-eight miles away! Phew! I was a long
way out of my reckoning when I thought that we should still have her in
sight, even if we tacked. We've lost her, Harry, my bhoy, and that's a
fact. However, we know where she's bound to, and that's the island of
Cuba, or I'm a Dutchman. Very well. Having given us the slip she will
make the best of her way there without further delay; and it is my
opinion that _if_ she is still standing to the northward she will not
continue to do so for very much longer, because, d'ye see, my bhoy,
she'll be afraid of falling in with some of our cruisers if she stands
in too close to the coast. Therefore, as we can hug the wind closer
than she can, we'll just stand on as we are going for a day or two
longer, or until the wind changes--in fact, we will shape a course for
Cuba--and if we don't fall in with her again within the next seventy-two
hours I shall give her up. Meanwhile the wind is dropping fast, so we
will get some more muslin upon the little hooker."

As Ryan had said, the wind was dropping fast, so rapidly, indeed, that
when eight bells was struck at midnight the schooner was under all the
canvas that we could set, and even then was only creeping along at a
speed of some two and a half knots per hour. Oh, how fervently we
wished then that we could see even as much as the mere mastheads of the
barque! for we felt certain that in such a light air the schooner would
make short work of overtaking her. But nothing hove in sight; and when
the next morning dawned we were still alone upon the face of the vast
ocean.

With the rising of the sun the small draught of air that still remained
to us fell dead; and we had it calm the whole day and well on