"Did you ever see a hare or a pheasant come and stare you in the face when you were going to shoot it?"
"Stunsails and tops!" cried Willis, "if I do not see something stranger than that staring us in the face."
"The sea-serpent, perhaps," said Jack.
"I thought it was a sea-bird at first," said Willis, "but they do not increase in size the longer you look at them."
"They naturally appear to increase as they approach," observed Fritz.
"Yes, but the increase must have a limit, and I never saw a bird with such singular upper-works before. Just take a cast of the glass yourself, Master Fritz."
"Halls of Æolus!" cried Fritz, "these wings are sails."
"So I thought!" exclaimed Willis, throwing his sou'-wester into the air, and uttering a loud hurrah.
"If it is the Nelson" said Jack, "it would be a singular encounter."
"The Nelson!" sighed Willis, "in the latitude of Hawai; no, that is impossible."