only craft visible, and he
accordingly made his way down to the water's edge, and, pushing her off,
sprang noiselessly into her as she went afloat. Then, heading her round
with a couple of powerful sweeps of the paddle, he pointed her nose
toward the spot where the _Minerva's_ spars made a delicate tracery of
black against the star-spangled heavens, and with long, easy, silent
strokes drove her quietly ahead.

That the crew had not yet retired to their bunks was soon evident to him
from the fact that snatches of maudlin song came floating down to him
occasionally upon the pinions of the dew-laden night breeze; but these
dwindled steadily as he drew nearer to the vessel, and about a quarter
of an hour before he arrived alongside they ceased altogether, and the
craft subsided into complete silence.

Leslie deemed it advisable to approach the barque with a considerable
amount of caution, not that he doubted the steward, but because, despite
the silence that had fallen on board, it was just possible that some of
the crew might still be awake and on deck; he therefore kept the three
masts of the vessel in one, and crept up to her very gently from right
astern. As he drew in under the shadow of her hull the complete
darkness and silence in which the craft was wrapped seemed almost
ominous and uncanny; but presently he detected a solitary figure on the
poop, evidently on the watch, and a moment later saw that this figure
was silently signalling to him to draw up under the counter. Obeying
these silent signals, he found a rope dangling over the stern, which he
seized, and the next instant the figure that he had observed came
silently wriggling down the rope into the canoe. Leslie at once
recognised him as the steward.

"It's all right, sir," whispered the man, breathless, in part from his
exertions, and partly also, Leslie believed, from apprehension; "it's
all right. But let go, sir, please, and let's get a few fathoms away
from the ship, for there's no knowin' when that skunk Turnbull may take
it into his head to come on deck and 'ave a look round; 'e's as nervous
as a cat, and that suspicious that you can't be up to 'im. There, thank
'e, sir; I dare say that'll do; they won't be able to see or 'ear us
from where we are now, for I couldn't see you until you was close under
the counter. Well, you've come, sir, God be thanked; and I 'ope you'll
be able to 'elp us; because if you can't it'll be a precious bad job for