"Is there any sign of wind?"
"No, sir, there does not seem to be a cat's-paw on the water anywheres."
"This is an awkward place to be becalmed, Harding," Peter said to the midshipman, who had just rowed on board from the barque. "If it were not for the prize we might get all the men in the boats and tow the schooner. We could get two and a half knots out of her, I should say, with the three boats ahead, but we can't tow her and the barque too; and I don't suppose that all hands would take that craft through the water more than a knot an hour, and divided between us the gain would be so little that it would not be worth while fatiguing the men. There is one thing, it is some thirty miles from where we are lying to Toulon, and as likely as not the naval people there won't think it worth while to send a gunboat out here when a breeze may spring up before they are half-way out. It is not as if it were in summer, when a calm will last for a week. Before an hour has passed we may have the wind coming down from the north with strength enough to take our mast out of us. No, I should say that the chances are that they will leave us alone, unless there happens to be a gunboat or two lying somewhere in shelter among these islands."
Half-an-hour later the look-out at the mast-head hailed again—
"It seems to me that there is a dark line coming across the water from the north, sir, and some fishing-boats close in shore have just lowered some of their sails."
"You had better go on board again at once, Harding; take five more men with you; we can manage very well with fifteen here. Get her royals and topgallant-sails furled, and it will be as well if you take a reef in your top-sails too. These squalls come down desperately hard, though they don't last long. We will keep together. If by any chance we get separated, make for Genoa—that is, if you cannot join the Tartar. However, I hope that it is not going to blow as hard as all that. I want to hand her over as soon as I can."
Five men were ordered into the boat, and in a couple of minutes they were on board the barque, which was lying only a few lengths away. Sail was shortened on board both vessels, and in a quarter of an hour they were under very reduced canvas. Peter ran up the ratlines for some distance.
"It is coming along like a racehorse, Mr. Harding," he shouted. "You had better put two or three men in a boat alongside, and get her head round, so that it will take her aft."
The vessels were still becalmed, and although the white line of water was still a mile away, the sound of the ripple was plainly perceptible. The schooner's head was also taken round, and both craft were ready for the squall when it struck them. It was well that they had been got round in time, for lying motionless they might have been capsized before they could get way on them, had they been caught broadside to the wind. As it was, both were driven down until the water almost came over the bows; then as they gathered way they sprang forward.
"I don't think that it is going to last long, Jamieson," Peter said to the gunner's mate.