“Well, sir,” he replied, “as we told Mr Howard, a few minutes ago, we can’t make much out of ’em as yet; they’m too far off for that. But I’ve got pretty good eyes, Mr Delamere, and I think when you brings that glass o’ yours to bear on ’em that you’ll find one on ’em’s got her r’yals stowed, while t’other has hers set. Likewise I’ve a sort of a notion that if you stays aloft for a matter o’ ten minutes or so you’ll find that there’s three on ’em, instead o’ two; at all events just as I was layin’ ’im off the yard I thought I catched a glimpse of somethin’ showin’ now and again that looked like the canvas of another craft just liftin’ over the ’orizon.”
“Thanks, Simmons,” said I, “I’ll keep a lookout for number three. If she really exists, she ought to declare herself unmistakably within the next few minutes. By the bye, I suppose they are heading this way?”
“To the best o’ my knowledge and belief they be, sir,” the man answered. “We wasn’t on the yard long enough to make exactly sure, but it seemed to me that, even durin’ the minute or two that elapsed after we first catched sight of ’em, they lifted a bit.”
“Thanks,” I said again. “We shall soon see.” And I sprang into the topmast rigging and proceeded on my way aloft, while Simmons swung himself down over the rim of the top.
I soon reached my destination and seated myself comfortably on the royal-yard, with my back resting against the mast under my lee. From this elevation the strangers were distinctly visible to the naked eye, for the atmosphere was as clear as crystal; and, even before I had established myself to my liking, my unaided sight had assured me that Simmons’ supposition was correct, and that there were three sail, instead of two, to the southward; for the object that the topman had only believed he saw elusively appearing and vanishing on the verge of the distant horizon now stood out clear and sharp as a tiny patch of canvas, showing milk-white in the morning sun, well clear of the other two. I soon brought my telescope—an exceptionally powerful instrument—to bear upon the three patches of canvas that gleamed like tiny shreds of fleecy, summer cloud upon the sharply-ruled edge of the dark-blue sea, and at once discovered that Simmons had been so far right that one of the craft had indeed her royals stowed, and not only that but her topgallantsails also, while the other two appeared to be showing every cloth they could possibly spread, including—as I soon made out—topgallant studdingsails.
Presently, when I had been working away with my telescope for a minute or two, a hail came floating up to me from the deck below of—
“Royal-yard, there! what have you been able to make out respecting the two strange sail to leeward?”
Looking down past my left shoulder, I saw the skipper and the first lieutenant both gazing upward at me. It was the latter who had hailed.
“There are three of them, instead of two, sir,” I answered. “And while two of them are carrying royals and topgallant-studding sails, the third has her royals and topgallantsails stowed; from which I infer that two of them are merchantmen, while the third is a man-o’-war—probably a frigate.”
A short confab between the Captain and Mr Howard ensued upon the communication of this bit of information; then the skipper hailed: