e. At last Nettleship ordered
the men to get out the oars.

"We may pull into a breeze, lads, perhaps," he said. "At all events, we
shall get so much nearer land."

Tom and I each took an oar to encourage the rest, half of us pulling at
a time. We had been at the oars for some five or six hours, when
towards evening, Nettleship, who had been standing up shading his eyes,
said--

"Lads, there's a sail in sight; she has a light breeze, and is standing
to the northward. We shall, I hope, get up to her; but mark you, she
may be English, but she may be French, and in that case we shall be made
prisoners."

"That won't be much odds," said one of the men; "better be made
prisoners than die of hunger and thirst out here."

That was true enough, but I didn't like the thoughts of the alternative.
When Nettleship, however, said that he was determined to try and come
up with the stranger, the men bent to their oars. Tom and I, at the
time, were now pulling, and I was surprised to see the strength the men
still possessed.

Gradually the stranger's topgallant-sails, and then the heads of her
topsails, rose above the horizon.

"She's a large ship, no doubt about that," said Nettleship. "Cheer up,
lads! my belief is she's English, but we shall be better able to judge
when we see her courses."

We were now steering west-and-by-north, so as to cut her off. After
going some distance, Nettleship called to Tom Pim to stand up in the
stern-sheets, and take a look at the stranger.

"What do you think of the cut of her canvas, Tom?" he asked. "Is that
English or French?"

"I should say English," answered Tom, "but we must get nearer to be
certain."

"Have you made up your minds to a French prison, lads, if we're
mistaken?" again said Nettleship.

"Better a French prison with food and water, than out here starving to
death," answered the men. "And we'll ask you, Mr Nettleship, for a
drink of water apiece. We'll get aboard her before dark, and our
throats are terribly dry."

"I warn you, lads, that a breeze may spring up, and that even now we may
miss her; and what shall we do if we have no water left?" said
Nettleship.

Still the men cried out for water. I could judge how my companions felt
by my own sensations. Nettleship reluctantly served out a double
allowance, leaving scarcely a quarter of a bottleful,--the other had
before been exhausted. The sun was sinking low, and we had not yet seen
the hull of the sh