s a bark of somewhat less tonnage than the _Cassandra_;
and the masts, which we could perceive very clearly against the clear
sky, had a greater rake than any I had ever before seen.

I do not know whether or not it was because my mind was running so much
upon the pirates and upon the great treasure which I had in my keeping,
but I am free to say that I liked the looks of the strange craft as
little as any I had ever beheld in my life, and would have given a
hundred guineas to be safe away from where I was, and with no more favor
than a good open sea and a smart breeze, for the _Cassandra_ was a
first-rate sailer, and as good a ship as any the East India Company had
at their docks.

As it was, we were cooped up in what was little more than a pond, and I
did not like the looks of the business at all.

"What do you make her out to be, Mr. Langely?" said I, after a bit,
handing him the glass.

He took a long and careful look at the stranger without speaking for a
while. By-and-by he said, without taking his eye from the glass, and as
though speaking half to himself, "She's making way against the current
somehow or other."

"Yes," said I; "I saw that from the first. But what do you make of her?"

"I can make nothing of her," says he, after a little while.

"Neither can I," I said; "and I like her none the better for that."

Mr. Langely took his eye from the glass, and gave me a very significant
look, whereby I saw that he had very much the same notion concerning the
stranger that I myself entertained.

By this time there was considerable bustle aboard the _Greenwich_, which
rode at anchor not more than a furlong or two from where we lay, and by
the gathering of the men on the forecastle I could see that they had
sighted the craft, as we had already done.

So the afternoon passed until six o'clock had come, against which time
the stranger had almost come into open sight beyond the cape to the
south, the hull alone being hidden by the low spit of sand which formed
the extremity of the point.

That evening I took my supper along with the passengers, as I had been
used to do, for I wished to appear unconcerned, as, after all, my
suspicions might be altogether groundless. Nevertheless, I came upon
deck again as soon as I was able, and found that the stranger was now so
far come into sight as to show a part of her hull, which was low, and
painted black, and was of such an appearance as rather to increase than
to less