idently on shore as well as his own.

"Merciful Heaven!" exclaimed Philip, rushing forward, "what can this
be?" He beheld the other vessel, with her light ahead, still sailing on
and leaving them. The day was now dawning, and there was sufficient
light to make out the land. The Dort was on shore not fifty yards from
the beach, and surrounded by the high and barren rocks; yet the vessel
ahead was apparently sailing on over the land. The seamen crowded on
the forecastle, watching this strange phenomenon; at last it vanished
from their sight.

"That's the Flying Dutchman, by all that's holy!" cried one of the
seamen, jumping off the gun.

Hardly had the man uttered these words when the vessel disappeared.

Philip felt convinced that it was so, and he walked away aft in a very
perturbed state. It must have been his father's fatal ship which had
decoyed them to probable destruction. He hardly knew how to act. The
admiral's wrath he did not wish, just at that moment, to encounter. He
sent for the officer of the watch, and having desired him to select a
crew for the boat, out of those men who had been on deck, and could
substantiate his assertions, ordered him to go on board of the admiral,
and state what had happened.

As soon as the boat had shoved off, Philip turned his attention to the
state of his own vessel. The daylight had increased and Philip
perceived that they were surrounded by rocks, and had run on shore
between two reefs, which extended half a mile from the mainland. He
sounded round his vessel, and discovered that she was fixed from forward
to aft, and that without lightening her, there was no chance of getting
her off. He then turned to where the admiral's ship lay aground and
found that, to all appearance, she was in even a worse plight, as the
rocks to leeward of her were above the water, and she was much more
exposed, should bad weather come on. Never, perhaps, was there a scene
more cheerless and appalling: a dark wintry sea--a sky loaded with heavy
clouds--the wind cold and piercing--the whole line of the coast one mass
of barren rocks, without the slightest appearance of vegetation; the
inland part of the country presented an equally sombre appearance, and
the higher points were capped with snow, although it was not yet the
winter season. Sweeping the coast with his eye, Philip perceived, not
four miles to leeward of them (so little progress had they made), the
spot where they had _deser