“What like is she?” asked Hildebrand.
“A large vessel, Sir,” answered Halyard. “One of the Dons, no doubt!”
“She must be a marvellous heavy sailer, then,” rejoined Hildebrand, “to be so far leeward of the fleet, which I see is now out of sight. Are we bearing towards her?”
“Right ahead, captain,” replied Halyard.
“I will go have a look for her,” said Hildebrand.
Accordingly, he broke away from Master Halyard, and, with a quick but steady step, passed towards the forecastle. A crowd of seamen, some score in number, were gathered in the bows, looking ahead; but they fell back directly he appeared, and thus opened to him a view of the remote horizon.
“Can ye see her from here, my lads?” he asked.
“Ay, Sir!” answered a half-dozen of voices:—“right ahead, Sir!”
Hildebrand, thus instructed, raised his hand over his eyes, and gazed in the direction specified with all his might. After a brief survey, he discerned a small slim object, like the trunk of a tree, on the edge of the horizon, which he readily recognised as the masts of a ship. On bringing it into view, he turned away from the forecastle, and stepped back to the quarter-deck.