unaptly described by Wilder himself assembling a spider's web.

"It must be a ship!" said Mrs Wyllys; "but at a vast distance."

"Hum! Would it were farther. I could wish that vessel any where but
there."

"And why not there? Have you reason to dread an enemy has been waiting for
us in this particular spot?"

"No: Still I like not her position. Would to God the were going north!"

"It is some vessel from the port of New York steering to his Majesty's
islands in the Caribbean sea."

"Not so," said Wilder, shaking his head; "no vessel, from under the
heights of Never-sink, could gain that offing with a wind like this!"

"It is then some ship going into the same place, or perhaps bound for one
of the bays of the Middle Colonies!"

"Her road would be too plain to be mistaken. See; the stranger is close
upon a wind."

"It may be a trader, or a cruiser coming _from_ one of the places I have
named."

"Neither. The wind has had too much northing, the last two days, for
that."

"It is a vessel that we have overtaken, and which has come out of the
waters of Long Island Sound."

"That, indeed, may we yet hope," muttered Wilder in a smothered voice.

The governess, who had put the foregoing questions in order to extract
from the Commander of the "Caroline" the information he so pertinaciously
withheld, had now exhausted all her own knowledge on the subject, and was
compelled to await his further pleasure in the matter, or resort to the
less equivocal means of direct interrogation. But the busy state of
Wilder's thoughts left her no immediate opportunity to pursue the subject.
He soon summoned the officer of the watch to his councils, and they
consulted together, apart, for many minutes. The hardy, but far from
quick witted, seaman who tilled the second station in the ship saw nothing
so remarkable in the appearance of a strange sail, in the precise spot
where the dim and nearly aerial image of the unknown vessel was still
visible; nor did he hesitate to pronounce her some honest trader bent,
like themselves, on her purpose of lawful commerce. It would seem that his
Commander thought otherwise, as will appear by the short dialogue that
passed between them.

"Is it not extraordinary that she should be just there?" demanded Wilder,
after they had, each in turn, made a closer examination of the faint
object, by the aid of an excellent night-glass.

"She would be better off, here," returned the literal seaman, who onl