The Log of a Privateersman | Page 9

lightly and buoyantly as a
sea-gull, doing her seven knots easily, although the skipper had taken
all the square canvas off her, letting her go along under mainsail,
foresail, staysail, and jibs. There was nothing to be seen, as the fog still
lay thick on the water; but there were indications that it would probably
lift before long, and Captain Winter had therefore ordered all hands to
be called, so that we might be ready for any emergency that might
arise.
"Sorry to have been obliged to disturb you, George, before your time,"
said the skipper, as I appeared on deck; "but the fog shows signs of
clearing, and I want to be ready to act decisively the moment that we
catch sight of the Indiaman."
"Quite so, sir," I replied. "Where do you expect to make her?"
"Ah!" he answered; "that's just the question that has been puzzling me.
We did not see enough of her last night to enable us to judge very
accurately what her rate of sailing may be; but I rather fancy, from the
glimpse we caught of her, that she is something of a slow ship, and, if
so, we may have run past her. At the same time, if the French have got
hold of her--of which I have very little doubt--they would be pretty
certain to crowd sail upon her in order to get well over toward their
own coast before daylight. I have shortened sail, as you see, so as to
reduce our own speed as nearly as possible to what I judge hers will be;
but this schooner is a perfect flyer--there's no holding her,--and it
would not surprise me a bit to find that we have shot ahead of the chase.
I feel more than half inclined to heave-to for a short time; but Lovell
thinks that the Indiaman is still ahead of us somewhere."
"Well," said I, "we ought to see something of her before long, for it is

clearing fast overhead, and it appears to me that, even down here on the
water, I can see further than I could when I first came on deck."
It was evident that the skipper was very fidgety, so I thought I would
not further unsettle him by obtruding my own opinion--which
coincided with his--upon him; therefore, finding him slightly disposed
to be taciturn, I left him, and made the round of the deck, assuring
myself that all hands were on the alert, and ready to go to quarters at
any moment. I passed forward along the starboard side of the deck,
noticing as I did so that there was a faint lightening in the fog away to
windward, showing that the dawn was approaching; and as I turned on
the forecastle to go aft again, I observed that the fog was thinning away
famously on the weather quarter. As I walked aft I kept my eyes
intently fixed on this thin patch, which appeared to be a small but
widening break in the curtain of vapour that enveloped us, for it was
evidently drifting along with the wind. I had reached as far aft as the
main rigging, still staring into the break, when I suddenly halted, for it
struck me that there was a small, faint blotch of darker texture in the
heart of it, away about three points on our weather quarter. Before I
could be quite certain about the matter, however, the blotch, if such it
was, had become merged and lost again in the thicker body of fog that
followed in the track of the opening. But while I was still debating
within myself whether I should say anything about what I fancied I had
seen, I became aware of a much larger and darker blot slowly looming
up through the leeward portion of the break, and apparently drifting
across it to windward, though this effect was, I knew, due to the
leeward drift of the break. This time I felt that there was no mistake
about it, and I accordingly cried:
"Sail ho! a large ship about a point on our weather quarter!"
And I hurried aft to point it out to the skipper before it should vanish
again. He looked in the direction toward which I was pointing, but was
unable to see anything, his eyes being dazzled in consequence of his
having been staring, in a fit of abstraction, at the illuminated
compass-card in the binnacle. Neither could Lovell see anything; and
while I was still endeavouring to direct their gaze to it, it disappeared.

"Are you quite certain that your eyes were not deceiving you, Mr
Bowen?" demanded the skipper rather pettishly.
"Absolutely certain, sir," I replied. "And what is more, I believe it to be
the Indiaman; for just before sighting her