mfortable--take possession of her, leave a prize-crew aboard her, and
get back to the schooner again before dinner."

"No doubt," I agreed. "But why should we trouble to get the boats into
the water and fatigue the men by a long pull in this sweltering heat?
That ship can't get away from us without wind; and if I am any judge of
the looks of a vessel we shall walk up to her as if she were at anchor
as soon as the breeze comes. She is a good seven miles away, a pull of
an hour and a half at the least in this weather, and at the end of it
the men would be too tired to face resistance effectively, if it were
offered--as it very possibly might be. No, I really do not see any
necessity to dispatch the boats, just yet at least; do you?"

"Well, 'pon my word, Mr Delamere, I don't know," answered Pearce,
scratching his head with a puzzled air. "The way you puts it there
don't seem to be no sense at all in doin' of it. And yet, I don't know,
sir. The fact is, I'm a bit puzzled about that there ship. Here are
we, regularly boxin' the compass, our jibboom pointin' first this way,
then that, and then t'other, while that ship haven't veered nothin' to
speak of all the time that I've been on deck; she've pointed steady to
the south'ard ever since I first set eyes on her, and it seems to me
that she've altered her bearin's a bit. I suppose it ain't likely that
she've got her boats into the water, towin' on t'other side of her, have
she?"

"Good gracious, man, no, surely not!" I ejaculated. "What in the world
should they do such a mad thing as that for? What effect would two, or
even three, boats have on a big heavy ship like that? They could never
hope to tow her below the horizon and out of sight of us before the wind
comes; and, if not, why should they tire themselves to death by making
such an attempt? I admit that it is rather strange that her head should
point so steadily in one direction while we are boxing the compass; but
she probably draws twice as much water as we do, and that may have
something to do with it."

I took the telescope from Pearce's hands and again levelled it at the
stranger. She was still lying broadside-on to us, showing us her port
side, and her yards were braced sharp up on the starboard tack, as
though--assuming her to have come in through one of the passages--she
had had a wind from the westward, while the breeze which had brought us
where we were had been from the eastward. The peculia