good Mr
Cavendish, by letting him find us alongside him at daybreak. We will,
therefore, carry on as hard as our spars and gear will suffer us, all
through the night; and, not to give the others an inkling of our
purpose, will edge away to the westward sufficiently to enable us to
pass the _Tiger_ about a mile to starboard of her, and the same with the
flag-ship."

At this time it was about two bells in the first dog-watch, and they
could therefore reckon on some ten hours of complete darkness--
sufficient, as the captain believed and hoped, to allow them to overtake
the other two ships of the squadron. They continued to crack on; and,
as the skipper had enjoined the maintenance of strict silence, the ship
seemed to those on board to resemble some dim phantom vessel, leaping
ghost-like from wave to wave before the strengthening wind. No sound
whatever was to be heard on board save the "swish" of the water
alongside, the low roar of the bow-wave as she plunged through it and
turned it aside from her bows, the weird crying of the wind through her
maze of rigging aloft, and the occasional "cheep" of parral or
block-sheave to the 'scend of the ship.

At about ten o'clock, much to the captain's satisfaction, the lights at
the stern of the _Tiger_ could be much more distinctly seen; and he
judged that she could at that time be only some four miles distant,
showing that in the past three hours they had gained some three miles on
her, which was good sailing. They were also, at this time, a good mile
to the westward of the starboard quarter of the _Tiger_, and, if
anything, edging a trifle more to starboard of her as they went along.
The reason for this was that the captain did not wish to pass the
_Tiger_ at a less distance than a mile; because, although it certainly
was a very dark night, on even the blackest of nights, if the weather be
clear, there is always a certain "loom" or faint image of a ship thrown
against the sky; and this loom would be visible to sharp eyes unless the
_Elizabeth_ kept some distance away from her consort.

Little by little they crept up, overtaking the _Tiger_; and bit by bit
her triangle of lights at the stern was becoming merged into one; then
the one light became gradually eclipsed, until at length they could not
see it at all, and by one o'clock in the morning they knew that they
must be running parallel with the _Tiger_ and at a distance of about a
mile and a half on her starboard beam.