mportant that the strange sail should be
overhauled before the change should occur.

These reflections passed through the skipper's brain in a single
moment--not perhaps quite so definitely as here set forth, but to the
same purpose--and in the next he jammed his helm hard up, eased off the
sheet, and bore away upon a course which he conjectured would enable him
to intercept the stranger.

For a few minutes after the disappearance of the moon Blyth was able, or
fancied he was able, still to distinguish the canvas of the chase
looming up vaguely like a dark shapeless shadow upon the horizon; but
either the sky grew darker in that quarter or the weather thickened, for
he was soon obliged to admit that he could see it no longer. But that
circumstance gave him not the least concern; he had set his course by a
star, and he knew that so long as he continued to steer for it, so long
would the course of the raft converge toward that of the stranger. He
_was_ concerned, however, to notice later on that not only was the
weather thickening overhead, necessitating a frequent changing of the
star by which he was following his course, but also that the wind was
becoming unsteady; sometimes falling away to such an extent as to cause
the raft's sail to flap heavily as she rolled over the ridges of the
swell, and anon breezing up quite fresh again, but with a change of
perhaps a couple of points in its direction, the change generally being
of such a character as to bring the wind forward more on his starboard
beam. Gradually the haze so thickened overhead that such stars as were
not already obscured grew dim and soon disappeared altogether, leaving
the solitary man dependent only upon the somewhat fickle wind for a
guide by which to steer his course; for though he had a compass on board
the raft, he had no binnacle, and no lamps by which to illuminate the
compass card. It is true the island was still in sight, some four miles
astern, but the night had grown so dark and the atmosphere so thick that
the land merely loomed like a vast undefined blot of darkness against
the black horizon, being so indistinct indeed that only the practised
eye of a seamen could have detected its presence at all; it was
therefore useless as an object to steer by, even to so keen-eyed an old
sea-dog as Captain Blyth.

It had by this time began to dawn upon the skipper that his adventure
was likely to prove of a far more serious character than he had at a