n
endeavouring to get away from us, we of course fancied that she was the
more worth having. The longest day must have an end, and so had this.
At its termination, when night was coming on, we were very little nearer
the chase than at daybreak. Still we hoped that a shift of wind might
enable us to get up with her, or that a calm might come on and allow us
to reach her with our boats. But neither one thing nor the other
occurred. Night came down upon us, and not the sharpest pair of eyes on
board could pierce through the dark mantle which shrouded her. Some
thought they saw her stealing off in one direction; others declared they
saw her steering an opposite course. The result was that when morning
broke, our expected prize had escaped us, and we were compelled to stand
back and rejoin our consorts, like a dog with his tail between his legs.
We had hopes, however, of being able in some degree to indemnify
ourselves for our loss, when, on the 2nd of August, about two hours
before daylight, the shadowy outline of a ship was seen dead to leeward
between us and the land, the wind being somewhere from the south-west.
Now she was there, ghostlike and indistinct, a spirit gliding over the
face of the waters; now as I looked she had disappeared and I could
scarcely believe that I had seen her.

"Can you make her out?" said I to Grampus, who was a quarter-master in
my watch. The old man hollowed his hands round his eyes and took a long
steady gaze into the darkness ahead.

"I did see her just a few minutes afor' you spoke to me, sir, but smash
my timbers if I sees her now!" he exclaimed, suiting the action to the
word. "Where is she gone to?"

"She has altered her course or a bank of mist is floating by between
us," I suggested.

"That's it, sir," said he; "I wouldn't be surprised but what she'd heave
in sight again afor' long, except she's one of those craft one hears
talk of, aboard of whom there's no living man with flesh and blood to
work them. If so be she is, I'd rather not fall in with her."

I laughed. "No fear of that," said I; "she has been reported to the
captain, and we shall be making all sail in chase presently. We shall
then soon find out what she's made of."

"Much as we did the schooner two days ago," muttered Grampus, as I left
him. "I don't know what's come over the ship that she don't walk along
faster."

The stranger had been reported to the captain, who very soon came on
deck, when all s