On coming up they found that the wind had so freshened that the fore-topsail and staysail had been struck, as well as the outer jib.
"We can run on till about four o'clock," Castleport said, "and have plenty of time to run back with this wind."
They still held to the westward, keeping about a mile off shore, now and then passing fishing craft, headed for Nice, their big lateen sails shining in the sunlight. Jack, watching Katrine keenly, read her delight and enjoyment in her eyes, and could see how she responded to the beauty of the day, the picturesqueness of the shore, the exhilaration of the wind, and the sparkling sea. At eight bells they had tea au Russe on deck, and before they had finished drinking it the Merle was put about and headed for the harbor.
They had hardly gone a knot before they fell in with a large black yawl flying the English colors and the burgee of the Royal Yacht Squadron. She was sailing easily along under all lower canvas, her black hull lifting gracefully over the sloping seas at about two cable-lengths ahead. She was in cruising rig, with no boom to her mainsail, yet was so large that her spread of canvas was at half a glance much greater than that of the Merle. She crossed the schooner's bows, and then, luffing occasionally, waited until the American yacht was on her beam.
"Looks's though she wanted something of us," remarked Jerry. "Will you take another look at her, Miss Marchfield?" And he handed her the glasses.
"She is a beauty!" exclaimed Katrine, regarding the yawl through the binoculars. "I can see her name now. I-s-i-s Isis, of—of Plymouth. Don't you want to look at her, Aunt Anne?"
Mrs. Fairhew took the glasses with the air of a person doing a favor, and stared at the yawl in a perfunctory manner.
"What an absurd bobtail of a sail that is set 'way back," she observed. "It looks quite like a deformity."
"That's for balance in heavy weather," said Jerry, with gusto. "Hadn't we better salute, Jack?"
"I suppose so," was the answer. "See; he's fallen off. Means to give us a run for it, I fancy."