" to the
midshipman in charge of the second cutter, "drop in my wake, sir, if you
please, and see that your men do not overtask themselves."

The men obediently eased down at once, and we jogged steadily along at a
pace of about four knots an hour; but their eagerness soon got the
better of them, the pace gradually increased, and I had to constantly
check them, or we should soon have been tearing away as fiercely as
ever.

This state of things lasted for about half an hour, and then the gleam
of lanterns suddenly appeared in the _Daphne's_ rigging. It was the
recall signal, and the men gave audible vent to their feeling of
disappointment in an involuntary groan.

"Never mind, men," I said; "I have no doubt Captain Vernon has some good
reason for it. Answer the signal, coxswain. Ah! I told you so; the
sloop has a little breeze, and here it comes creeping up astern of us.
Step the mast, take the covers off the sails, and get the canvas on the
boats. Do you see that bright red star close to the horizon, coxswain?
Starboard a bit. So, steady, now you have it fair over the boat's stem.
Steer for it, and we shall just drop alongside the loop nicely, without
troubling her to wait for us."

The breeze soon reached us, toying coyly with the boat's canvas at
first, but gradually bellying out the sails until at last they "went to
sleep." The breeze was, after all, merely the gentlest of zephyrs, only
just sufficient to give a ship steerage-way; but, very fortunately for
us, the boats were provided, by a whim of poor Austin's, with a suit
each of enormous lateen sails made of light duck, with yards of such a
length that they had to be jointed in the middle to enable them to be
stowed in the boats; they were just the thing for light airs, and under
their persuasive influence we were soon gliding smoothly through the
scarcely ruffled water quite as fast as the men could have propelled us
with the oars. An hour later we slid handsomely up alongside the sloop,
which by this time was slipping along at the rate of about five knots
under studding-sails and everything else that would hold a breath of
wind, and the boats were hoisted in without any interruption to the
ship's progress.

"Well, Mr Hawkesley, what news from the burning ship?" exclaimed the
skipper as I stepped up to him to make my report.

I explained to him the state in which we had found the vessel when we
reached her, and gave him her name.

"Ah!" he remark