"The schooner on our weather-bow!"
"Well, what of her?"
"She has luffed."
"Well, what o' that?"
"She has altered her course."
"How many points?"
"She was sailing S.E., and now her head is N.E."
"That is curious."
General Rolleston, who had come and listened with a grain of hope, now sighed, and turned away.
The captain explained kindly that the man was quite right to draw his captain's attention to the fact of a trading-vessel altering her course. "There is a sea-grammar, general," said he; "and, when one seaman sees another violate it, he concludes there is some reason or other. Now, Jack, what d'ye make of her?"