Aided by these minute directions, Gertrude at length caught a glimpse of the faint object, and soon succeeded in giving the true direction to the look of her governess also. Nothing was visible but the dim outline, not unaptly described by Wilder himself assembling a spider’s web.
“It must be a ship!” said Mrs Wyllys; “but at a vast distance.”
“Hum! Would it were farther. I could wish that vessel any where but there.”
“And why not there? Have you reason to dread an enemy has been waiting for us in this particular spot?”
“No: Still I like not her position. Would to God she were going north!”
“It is some vessel from the port of New York steering to his Majesty’s islands in the Caribbean sea.”
“Not so,” said Wilder, shaking his head; “no vessel, from under the heights of Never-sink, could gain that offing with a wind like this!”
“It is then some ship going into the same place, or perhaps bound for one of the bays of the Middle Colonies!”
“Her road would be too plain to be mistaken. See; the stranger is close upon a wind.”
“It may be a trader, or a cruiser coming from one of the places I have named.”