starboard, and then as the line was once more loosened, glided on
straight ahead for something dim and strange that stood out before them
like a blur.

As the men bent to their stout ash-blades, pulling with all their might,
a great thrill seemed to run through the cutter, which, as it were,
participated in the excitement of the crew, boat and men being for the
time as it were one, while the dark blur now rapidly assumed form,
growing moment by moment more distinct, till the occupants of the
stern-sheets gradually made out the form of a two-masted vessel gliding
along under a good deal of sail.

She had so much way on, as the cutter was coming up at right angles that
instead of beating fast, Fitz Burnett's heart now continued its
pulsations in jerks in his excitement lest the schooner should glide by
them and leave them behind.

It was a near thing, but the lieutenant had taken his measures
correctly. He was standing up once again grasping the rudder-lines till
almost the last moment, before dropping them and giving two orders, to
the coxswain to hook on, and to the crew to follow--unnecessary orders,
for every man was on the _qui vive_, knew his task, and meant to do it
in the shortest possible time.

And now a peculiar sense of unreality attacked the young midshipman, for
in the darkness everything seemed so dream-like and unnatural. It was
as if they were rowing with all their might towards a phantom ship, a
misty something dimly-seen in the darkness, a ship-like shape that might
at any moment die right away; for all on board was black, and the
silence profound. There was nothing alive, as it were, but the schooner
itself, careening gently over in their direction, and passing silently
before their bows.

One moment this feeling strengthened as Fitz Burnett dimly made out the
coxswain standing ready in the bows prepared to seize hold with the
boat-hook he wielded, while the men left their oars to swing, while they
played another part.

"The boat-hook will go through it," thought the lad, as, following the
lieutenant's example, he stood ready to spring up the side. The next
moment all was real, for the cutter in response to a jerk as the
coxswain hooked on, grated against the side and changed its course,
gliding along with the schooner, while, closely following, their
officers, who sprang on board, the little crew of stout man-of-war's men
sprang up and literally tumbled over the low bulwarks on to the ves