on as Leslie
reached the camp he procured the telescope, and, hurrying away to the
nearest point from which it would be possible to obtain a view of the
stranger, subjected her to as careful a scrutiny as the circumstances
permitted.

After all, however, there was not very much to be learned about her, for
she was about twelve miles distant, dead to leeward of the island, and
as the sun was already dipping below the horizon, the time available for
observation was but short. He could distinguish, however, that she was
barque-rigged, and apparently a very smart little vessel of about three
hundred tons or thereabout. That she was beating up to fetch the island
was obvious; for whereas when Leslie first sighted her she was on the
port tack, heading south, she shortly afterwards tacked to the eastward,
thus--in conjunction with what Flora had already observed--clearly
indicating that her purpose was at least to pass the island as closely
as possible, if not to actually touch at it. And that the latter was
her intention Leslie had no manner of doubt; for if she had intended
merely to pass it closely by, there would have been no need for her to
have made that last board to the eastward; by standing on to the
southward she would have slid down under the lee of the island quite
closely enough to have made the most detailed observations that her
commander might have deemed necessary. There was one peculiarity
connected with her that for some inexplicable reason took hold upon
Leslie's mind with a persistence that was positively worrying to him,
yet it was a peculiarity of apparently the most trivial and unimportant
character; it was simply that when she tacked he noticed--with that
keenness of observation that is so peculiarly the attribute of the
highly trained naval officer--that her yards were swung very slowly, and
one after the other, as though she were very short-handed, even for a
merchant vessel.

As Leslie closed the telescope and thoughtfully wended his way back
toward the camp, he found himself perplexed by the presence within his
mind of two strangely conflicting trains of thought. On the one hand,
here was a ship approaching the island, and either intending to make a
call at it, or to approach it so closely that it would be the simplest
matter in the world for him to go out on the catamaran and intercept
her. By acting thus he would be able, without any difficulty, to secure
for his companions and himself tr