"Fore-topsail sheets?"
"Ready for running, sir."
"How's her head now?" to the man at the helm.
"Nor'-west, half north."
"Keep a brisk look-out to the south'ard, sir," he said to me; "and sing out if you see the sky clearing."
I saw him, by the binnacle-light, put his finger in his mouth and hold it up. But there was no other air to be felt than the short rush first one way, then another, as the ship rolled.
Scarcely ten minutes had passed since he addressed me, when I saw what I took to be a ship's light standing clear upon the horizon, right astern.
I was about to call out when another light sprang up just above it. Then a small, faint light, a little to the westward of these, then another.
Owing to the peculiar character of the atmosphere these lights looked red, and so completely was I deceived by their appearance, that I halloed out—
"Do you see those lights astern, sir? They look like a fleet of steamers coming up."