turned dry, and we went along with all cloths showing, sailing about
five knots--not more, and I don't think less. When the change of
weather came Mr. Robinson looked more cheerful. Seemed happier, he
did, and I overheard him say to the party as they stood looking over
the starn at the wake that ran away in two white lines with a gull, or
two circling within a stone's throw in waiting for whatever the cook
had to heave overboard--I heard him say:

"'Every mile'll make it more difficult; besides,' says he, with a
sweep of his hand, 'what a waste this is! Williams,' he sings out to
me, 'how fur off's the horizon?'

"'Why,' I answered, 'from this height I should say a matter of six
mile and a half.'"

'And how fur distant, Captain Williams,' says the lady, smiling
sweetly, and pretty nigh confusing my brains by the beautiful look she
gave me, 'would a vessel like ours be seen?'

"I took time to think, with a squint at our mastheads--for we carried
long sticks--and said, 'Well, call it twelve mile, mum. It's
impossible to speak to a nicety.'

"'And what,' I heard Mr. Robinson observe, as I turned away, 'is
twelve miles in this here watery wilderness of leagues?'

"'And then she gave a laugh, as if some one had made her feel glad;
and it was all like music and poetry, I can tell you, her laughing,
and his softness, and the water smooth, and the yacht sailing along as
if she enjoyed it, like a hard-worked vessel out for a holiday.

"Time passed till it come on four o'clock on the afternoon of that
day. There was a redness in the western heavens that betokened more
wind, though the sun still stood high. Meanwhile the breeze hung
steady. There was the smoke of a steamer away on our starboard
quarter, and there was nothing else in sight. I took no notice of it,
for smoke's not uncommon nowadays on the ocean; but whatever the
vessel might be, the glances I'd take at her now and again made me see
she was driving through it properly; for three-quarters of an hour
after we had sighted it, the smoke was abeam, and the funnel raised
up, showing that her course was something to the eastward of ours. I
pointed the glass at her, and made out a yellow chimney and
pole-masts--hull still below the horizon.

"'Either a yacht, sir, or a Government dispatch boat--something of
that kind, sir,' says I to Mr. Robinson, who was sitting near me with
the lady.

"He jumped up and took a look, and whilst he was working away with the
teles