The moon was within a very short time of setting when I reached the
deck, and I stood watching her half-disc creeping insensibly nearer and
nearer to the horizon, lighting up the sky that way with a soft,
mysterious, brownish-green light, and casting a long, tremulous wake of
ruddy gold athwart the tops of the running surges. Lindsay was standing
beside me, yawning the top of his head nearly off, poor lad; for
although he too was anxious as to the fate of those who we were seeking,
his anxiety had not, thus far, interfered with his rest, and his watch
was now so nearly up that he was quite ready for the four hours' sleep
that awaited him.

I was in the very act of telling him that, as I should not go below
again, he might turn in if he chose,--my eyes being all the while fixed
upon the setting moon,--when suddenly, almost immediately under the
luminary, I caught a momentary glimpse of a small black object--small as
a pin-head--as it were hove-up on the back of a sea against the luminous
sky. Stopping short in what I was saying, I sprang to the rail, and
from thence into the main rigging, half a dozen ratlines of which I
ascended in order to gain a horizon clear of the run of the nearer seas.
From this elevation I again looked out, instinctively shading my eyes
under my hand, and in another moment I had again caught sight of the
object, and not only so, but had also detected an intermittent flashing,
as of the moonlight off the wet blades of oars.

"A boat! a boat!" I shouted, in the fulness of my delight. "Hurrah,
lads! we have one of them at last! Let draw the jib-sheet! Fill the
topsail! Up helm there, my man, and let her go broad off!"

As I rapidly issued these orders I swung myself out of the rigging, and,
running to the binnacle, took the bearing of the moon, allowing half a
point to the northward of her as the course to steer for the boat.

"Where is the gunner?" I shouted; "pass the word for Mr Robbins!"

"Here I am, sir," answered Robbins--for my words had thrilled through
the little craft like an electric shock, and already the watch below
were scrambling up through the hatchway, carrying their clothing in
their hands, in their eagerness to get a glimpse of the newly discovered
boat.

"Mr Robbins," said I, "have the goodness to clap a blank cartridge into
one of the guns, and fire it as an encouragement to those poor fellows
out there; they will guess, by our firing, that we have seen them."