A Middy in Command | Page 4

the chase once more; and a minute or
two later the first of the true breeze reached us, and we began to glide
slowly ahead before it, with squared yards. The men were still kept
busy with the buckets, however, for, in order that the sails should be of
any real service to us, it was necessary to keep them thoroughly wet,
and this involved the continuous drawing and hoisting aloft of water,

for the sun's rays were so intensely ardent that the water evaporated
almost as rapidly as it was thrown upon the canvas.
The breeze came down very slowly, and seemed very loath to freshen;
but this, tantalising though it was to us, was all in our favour, for we
thus practically carried the breeze down with us, while the two strange
sail away in the western board remained completely becalmed. Of this
latter fact I soon had most satisfactory evidence, for, without having
recourse at all to my sextant, I was enabled, in that atmosphere of
crystalline clearness, to see with the naked eye that we were steadily
raising them, an hour's sailing having brought the bulwark rail of both
craft flush with the horizon at my point of observation. By this time,
however, the breeze had slid some three miles ahead of us, its margin,
where it met and overran the glassy surface of the becalmed sea ahead,
being very distinctly visible. At last, too, the wind was manifesting
some slight tendency to freshen, for, looking aft, I saw that all our after
canvas, even to the heavy mainsail which was hanging in its brails, was
swelling out and drawing bravely, while the little streak of froth and
foam-bells that gathered under our sharp bows, and went sliding and
softly seething aft into our wake, told me that we were slipping through
the water at a good honest six-knot pace. With this most welcome
freshening of the wind the necessity to keep the canvas continuously
wet came to an end; and the men, glad of the relief, were called down
on deck to clean up the mess made by the lavish use of the water.
Another half-hour passed, and the strange craft were hull-up, when the
captain hailed me from the deck in the wake of the main rigging.
"What is the latest news of the strangers, Mr Grenvile?" he asked. "Has
the breeze yet reached them?"
"No, sir; not yet," I answered; "but I expect it will in the course of the
next half-hour. They are hull-up from here, sir; and I should think that
you ought to be able to see the mast-heads of the larger craft--the
brig--from the deck, by this time."
Hearing this, the skipper and Mr Fawcett walked forward to the
forecastle, the former levelling the telescope that he carried in his hand,

and pointing it straight ahead. Then, removing the tube from his eye,
the captain handed over the instrument to the second luff, who, in his
turn, took a good long look, and returned the telescope to the captain.
They stood talking together for a minute or two; and then Captain
Bentinck, glancing up at me, hailed.
"Mr Grenvile," said he, "I am about to send this glass up to you by
means of the signal halyards. I want you to keep an eye on those two
craft down there, and report anything particular that you may see going
on; and let me know when the breeze reaches them, and whether they
keep together when it does so."
"Ay, ay, sir!" I answered. And when the telescope came up I made
myself comfortable, feeling quite prepared to remain in the cross-trees
for the rest of the watch.
The breeze, meanwhile, continued steadily to freshen, and when at
length it reached the two strange sail ahead of us we were buzzing
along, with a long, easy, rolling motion over the low swell, at a speed
of fully nine knots, with a school of porpoises gambolling under our
bows--each of them apparently out-vying the others in the attempt to
see which of them could shoot closest athwart our cut-water without
being touched by it--and shoal after shoal of flying-fish sparking out
from the bow surge and streaming away to port and starboard like so
many handfuls of bright new silver coins flung hither and thither by
Father Neptune.
As the strangers caught the first of the breeze they squared away before
it; but I presently saw that, instead of steering precisely parallel courses,
as though they intended to continue in each other's company, they were
diverging at an angle of about forty-five degrees, the brig bringing the
wind about two points on her port quarter, while the schooner, steering
a somewhat more northerly course, held it about two points on her
starboard quarter.