ung moon hung low down in the velvety darkness of the
western sky, and a long thin thread of amber radiance streamed from the
horizon beneath her toward the boat, becoming more and more wavering and
broken up as it neared her, until within some twenty fathoms of the
launch it dwindled away to a mere occasional fluttering gleam. A great
and solemn silence prevailed, upon which such slight sounds as the flap
of the sails, the pattering of the reef-points, the creak of the rudder,
or the stir of some uneasy sleeper broke with almost painful
distinctness.

Mr Bowles drew out his watch, and holding it close to his face,
discovered that it was a few minutes past midnight. For the previous
half-hour he had been sitting on the deck near Bob, with his legs
dangling into the little cockpit abaft the stern-sheets, and staring in
an abstracted fashion astern. As he replaced the watch in his pocket he
glanced once more in that direction, but now his look suddenly grew
intense and eager. For a full minute he remained thus, then he withdrew
from its beckets beneath the seat a long and powerful telescope, which
he adjusted and levelled. For another full minute he gazed anxiously
through the tube, and then, handing it to Bob to hold, he crept silently
forward, so as not to disturb the sleeping women, and quietly called the
relief watch.

"Well, Mr Bowles," said the captain, as he rose to his feet, "what
weather have you had? Is there any wind at all?"

"Very little, sir," answered the chief mate, replying to the last
question first; "just a cat's-paw from the west'ard bow and then, but
nothing worth speaking about; and it's been the same all through the
watch. I want you to take a squint through the glass before I turn-in,
sir, and to tell me whether I've been dreaming with my eyes open or no."

"Why, what is it, Bowles? Do you think you've seen anything?"

"Well, yes, I do, sir," answered the mate, "but it's so very indistinct
in this starlight that I don't care to trust to my own eyes alone."

Without another word the pair moved aft, and when they were fairly
settled in the cockpit Mr Bowles took the glass from Bob and put it
into the skipper's hand. He then looked intently astern for perhaps
half a minute, when he laid his hand on the skipper's arm and said--

"D'ye see them two stars, sir, about a couple of hand's breadths to the
south'ard of the moon? They're about six degrees above the horizon, and
the lower one i