'Ho, yes; I had her clear for ten minutes, watching for smoke for a signal; and I then gave the glass to the mate, who likewise looked till the run of the land hid her.'
'Will you describe her as you remember her?'
'Ho, yes. She was black, a lump of a ship she looked; wal, I daresay all seven hundred tons. What was the burthen of thy vessel, Mr. Moore?'
'Six hundred,' I answered.
'Ho, wal, we was a good ways off, and that thar hull might as wal be six as seven hundred tons.'
'Was she clean dismasted?'
'Clean?—wal, my mate arterwards said there was a stump of foremast standing. I didn't observe it.'
'But it must be the ship—the "Lady Emma" herself!' I cried, almost shouting in my excitement. 'When her masts went over the side, twelve feet of the foremast remained.'
He nodded gravely; but his long, hollow, yellow face reflected nothing of my emotion, no more than had he been a sheep.