Page:Harper's New Monthly Magazine - v108.djvu/316



seamanlike precaution of slowing down in the middle watch, and also doubled the lookouts.

The early morning hours dragged interminably. Very few members of the crew, except the tired fireman fresh from the stoke-hole, found occasion to sleep. In the officers' quarters there was much speculation as to the identity of the craft, and whether her cargo would repay the trouble of salving. The first lieutenant, who acted as gunnery expert, told what he would do in case it was decided to blow up the stranger.

At break of dawn a loud hail came from the bridge. It was the welcome announcement that a vessel had been sighted, and in much less time than is taken in the telling, the cutter's entire crew was on deck. Aided by his powerful glass, the captain saw a blotch on the distant horizon, which presently resolved itself into a bark standing to the northwest.

"We'll have to look further," he said, with evident disappointment. "That craft is no derelict. She's got a crew aboard."

With the hope that the bark might have sighted the abandoned ship, the cutter's course was altered and she steamed within hailing distance. A brief conversation elicited the fact that something resembling a drifting hulk had been seen not three hours previously, but as it was too dark to distinguish details, the skipper of the bark was not certain. It was a promising clue, however, and the cutter steamed away again.

Shortly after two bells (nine o'clock) one of the men who had been keeping a steady watch ahead called out that he could see something resembling a topmast above the rim of the horizon. A few moments later another spar appeared, and then a tremulous line, which finally assumed the shape of a hull. Even at that distance it was possible to see that something was wrong on board the craft. It was apparently a two-masted schooner, but the maintopmast was gone, and what appeared to be a mass of wreckage encumbered the after-deck.

As the revenue cutter rapidly lessened the distance, the strange vessel was seen to yaw and pitch, as if not under control.