the horizon. At last he descended, and summoned the pilot,
with the first lieutenant and master, into his cabin, where a chart was
spread out on the table.

"And we may stand safely on towards that island on our present course
without fear of rocks or shoals, pilot?" he asked.

The answer was in the affirmative.

"There is a strong current setting from the eastward, you say, and you
have known many vessels wrecked attempting the passage? Then, Mr
Saltwell, pack all sail on the brig. There is a large boat, or a raft,
with a square sail, to the south-east of us, which we will overhaul
without delay."

Royals and studding-sails, alow and aloft, were now set, and away the
_Ione_ flew before the breeze. Now the wind fell, and now it freshened;
but the brig gained rapidly on the chase, which, by the little way it
made, was soon suspected of being a raft. Then came all the horrible
doubts and fears, naturally suggested to Fleetwood's mind--but we will
not dwell on them.

"Sail, ho!" sung out the hand at the foremast-head.

"A felucca-looking craft right under the land ahead of us," was the
answer to the usual questions.

Saltwell himself went aloft to ascertain more clearly her character, and
soon returned with the report that she was a mistico beating up for the
raft.

"She will be up to it, too, sir, I am afraid, long before we can reach
it," he observed. "Shall we get a gun ready to fire, sir?"

"In mercy's name, no!" exclaimed Fleetwood. "We do not know what
innocent people might be injured."

"I meant to fire at the mistico, sir," said the lieutenant. "She is, I
am certain, a piratical craft, and if those on the raft are of the same
kidney, she will assist them to escape; or if not, her people will rob
and murder them under our very eyes."

"You forget, Mr Saltwell, that we cannot be certain of that craft being
a pirate, and till we are, we have no right to fire," said the captain.
"Besides, our shot might strike the raft, or the pirates, if such they
are, might fire on it in revenge."

The cry of "a sail on the larboard bow" interrupted the conversation,
and, as the glasses were turned in the direction indicated, the sails of
a lofty ship were seen appearing above a headland, which ran out from
the east end of the small island which lay before them. The mistico
could not yet see the stranger, so she stood on fearlessly towards the
raft. The people on the raft were then seen to quit it, and to go