starboard tack. When the brig was fairly
round, and the helm steadied I found that the object bore a full point
on the lee bow, and that we should probably fetch it with ease. It was
now distant about ten and a half miles, so there was plenty of time for
us to go below and get tiffin ere closing it.

It was within about two hours of sunset when we at length came up with
the object; but long ere then I had, with the assistance of the
telescope, made it out to be a large boat, apparently a ship's longboat,
unrigged, and drifting idly before the wind. Yet her trim, sitting low,
as she was, on the water, showed that she was not empty; and at length,
when we were within some two miles of her, I suddenly observed a
movement of some sort aboard her, and a couple of oars were laid out--
with some difficulty, I thought. I was at the wheel when this
occurred--for I had discovered, some time earlier in the afternoon, that
although, with the wheel lashed, the brig could be made to steer herself
fairly well upon a wind, she was just a trifle too erratic in her course
to hit off and fetch such a comparatively small object as we were now
aiming for, and consequently I had been steering all through the
afternoon--but I at once called Miss Onslow to relieve me while I ran
the ensign--the stars and stripes--up to the peak, as an encouragement
to the occupants of the boat, and an intimation that they had been seen.
It was tedious work, our snail-like closing with the boat, and it was
rendered all the more so by the fact that those in her, after vainly
attempting for some five minutes to use the oars, had given up the
effort, and were once more invisible in the bottom of the boat, while
the oars, left to take care of themselves, had gradually slid through
the rowlocks and gone adrift. This simple circumstance, apparently so
trivial, was to me very significant, pointing, as I considered it did,
to a condition of such absolute exhaustion on the part of the strangers
that even the loss of their oars had become a matter of indifference to
them. Who could tell what eternities of suffering these men had endured
ere being brought into this condition? It was quite likely that that
lonely, drifting boat had been the scene of some ghastly tragedy! Who
could tell what sight of horror might be passively awaiting us between
the gunwales of the craft? I once more resigned the wheel to Miss
Onslow's hand, with strict injunctions to her not to le