g cabin-boy, he directed him to take it below. While the
captain and his first officer were making their observation, a group of
midshipmen had collected on the deck with their quadrants in their
hands, doing their best to shoot the sun, but their less experienced
eyes could make but little of it in that heavy sea; and when they came
to read off their observations, they were somewhat surprised at the
wonderful difference which existed among them. Stopping to listen to a
few remarks made to them by the captain, they hurried off the deck to
deposit their quadrants in places of safety. The dog all the time stood
with his feet firmly planted on the deck, watching the captain, as if he
fully understood what was going on. Captain Davenport, as he turned,
patted him on the head. "You are a wise dog, Merlin," he observed; "but
you cannot take an observation yet." Merlin wagged his tail as if he
had received a compliment, or, at all events, well pleased at the notice
taken of him.

The captain was a tall man of spare figure, his white locks and
weather-beaten countenance making him appear considerably older than his
firm, yet light and active step, seemed to warrant. His eye, too, was
still full of life and fire, and his voice clear and strong, evidence of
which had been given when he issued his orders in the late gale, and
when, by his promptitude and decision, he had saved the ship, seemingly
on the point of destruction.

Scarcely had eight bells been struck, when the voice of the boatswain
from the forecastle was heard shouting, "A vessel on the lee bow, sir!
A dismasted ship! It can be nothing else!"

Captain Davenport went forward, followed by Merlin.

"Where away is she, Mr Tarbox?" he asked of the boatswain.

"There, sir, you will catch her over the bumkin-head," answered the
boatswain. "I saw her again just as you stepped on the forecastle. She
cannot have gone down in the meantime!"

"I hope not indeed," said the captain, looking out eagerly in the
direction towards which the boatswain pointed. At last he too caught
sight of a dark object lifted on the top of a sea. "A dismasted ship;
no doubt about that," he observed. "We will keep away for her. There
are probably people on board, and although it would be a difficult
matter to take them off while this sea is running, we may do so if it
goes down, as it has been gradually doing since daylight."

The Indiaman stood on, now rising to the summit of a s