"Ah! Misther Grafton," said Farrell, "I may say that's the only time I ever felt glad to get my fist clutched in yer hair, was when I see it bobbing up close to our boat, sir. But, I'm thinking ye had about as narrow a chance for yer life as meself had, the night I went after the parr-puses, bad luck till 'em."
The next morning, Fisher, who was at the masthead, reported four sails in sight, three to the leeward of us, and one off the weather beam running down for us under all sail.
"Look sharp!" cried the old man, "he must see something if he is running off. Don't let him get a large whale right under our noses!"
I observed that he and the mate exchanged significant glances, and I thought too that there was a merry twinkle in his eye. I relieved Fisher at the masthead after breakfast, and not long afterwards, the captain, who had been getting sights to determine his longitude by chronometer, hailed me from the deck.
"How does that sail to windward bear now?"
"Two points abaft the beam, sir," I answered.
"We ought to see him from deck by this time, then," said the old man.
"I don't think you can, sir," I answered. "He don't seem to near us much."
I heard a loud laugh from the mate, but supposed, of course, it was called forth by something transpiring on deck; and a few minutes afterwards perceived the captain coming up the rigging, with the spyglass slung over his neck. He took a comfortable seat on the crosstrees (which was more than he allowed me to do, for I was required to stand the whole two hours), and, bringing his telescope to bear on the strange ship, said to me:
"So you think he don't near us much, eh?"
"I cannot perceive that he nears us at all," said I. "And yet there he is, coming right at us with to'gal'antsails set, and the breeze on his quarter."
"Well," said he, "by all accounts, you are not the first one by dozens who has been mystified by that same craft. According to our observation, that is Ormsbee's Peak; a rock that rises out of the sea like a tower, at a considerable distance, too, from any other land. It tapers upward very much like the sails of a ship. I never saw it before, myself, but I am told that it is almost always raised from the masthead as a sail. So you needn't take any further note of Ormsbee's manoeuvres, for he won't come down near enough to us to-day. Keep a sharp eye on those fellows under our lee. If a whale comes up among the fleet here, we want to be in the suds as quick as any of 'em.