many extraordinary
experiences, and see so many strange and unaccountable sights, that the
capacity for wonder is soon lost, and the most astonishing and--to
shore-abiding folk--incredible occurrences are accepted as a matter of
course.

During the whole of that day we continued to make short tacks to
windward as before, with half the watch aloft on the look out; but
nothing was sighted, and at nightfall we again hove-to, maintaining our
position as nearly as possible in the same spot until the next morning.

With the first sign of daylight I sent aloft the keenest-sighted man we
had on board, that he might take a good look round ere we filled upon
the schooner to resume our disheartening search. So eager was I, that
when the man reached the royal yard, the stars were still blinking
overhead and down in the western sky, and it was too dark to see to any
great distance. But the dawn was paling the sky to windward, and as the
cold, weird, mysterious pallor of the coming day spread upward, and
warmed into pinkish grey, and from that into orange, and from orange to
clearest primrose, dyeing the weltering undulations of the low-running
sea with all the delicate, shifting tints of the opal, I saw the fellow
aloft suddenly rise to his feet and stand upon the yard, with one arm
round the masthead to steady himself against the quick, jerky plunges of
the schooner, while he shielded his eyes with the other hand, as he
steadfastly gazed into the distance to windward.

"Royal yard, there, do you see anything?" I hailed eagerly; and the
sudden ecstasy of renewed hope which sprang up within my breast now
fully revealed to me how nearly I had been driven to the confines of
despair by the long-protracted non-success of the search upon which I
had so confidently entered.

"I ain't quite sure, sir," was the unsatisfactory reply that came down
to me; "it's still a trifle dusky away out there, but I thought just now
that--ay, there it is again! There's _something_ out there, sir, about
six or seven mile away, but I can't yet tell for certain whether it's a
boat or no; it's somewheres about the size of a boat, sir."

"Keep your eye on it," I answered. "I will get the glass and have a
look for myself."

So saying, I went hastily to the companion, removed the ship's telescope
from the beckets in which it hung there, and quickly made my way aloft.

"Now," said I, as I settled myself upon the yard, "where is the object?"

"D'ye s