They had rounded Cape Hatteras, the sea was smoother, the cold wind had gone down, and Willy Croup, warmly wrapped up, was sitting in a steamer chair on deck. The desire that she might suddenly be transferred to Plainton or to heaven was gradually fading out of her mind, and the blue sky, the distant waves, and the thought of the approaching meal were exercising a somewhat pleasurable influence upon her dreamy feeling, when Captain Burke, who stood near with a telescope, announced that the steamer over there on the horizon line was heading south and that he had a notion she was the _Antonina_, the vessel on which Shirley had sailed.
"I believed that we could overhaul her!" said he to Mrs. Cliff. "I didn't know much about her sailing qualities, but I had no reason to believe she has the speed of this yacht, and, as we're on the same course, I thought it likely we would sight her, and what's more, pass her. We'll change our course a little so that we will be closer to her when we pass."
Mrs. Cliff, who had taken the glass, but could not see through it very well, returned it to the Captain and remarked, "If we can go so much faster than she does, why can't we take Mr. Shirley on board when we catch up to her?"
"I don't know about that," said Burke. "To do that, both vessels would have to lay to and lose time, and she might not want to do it as she's a regular steamer, and carries the mail. And besides, if Shirley's under orders,--that is, the same thing as orders,--to go straight to Jamaica, I don't know that we have any right to take him off his steamer and carry him to Nassau. Of course, he might get to Jamaica just as soon, and perhaps sooner, if he sailed with us, but we don't know it! We may be delayed in some way; there're lots of things that might happen, and anyway, I don't believe in interfering with orders, and I know Shirley doesn't either. I believe he would want to keep on. Besides, we don't really know yet that that's the _Antonina_."
A couple of hours, however, proved that Captain Burke's surmise had been correct, and it was not long before the two vessels were abreast of each other. The yacht had put on all steam and had proved herself capable of lively speed. As the two vessels approached within hailing distance, Captain Burke went up on the little bridge, with a speaking-trumpet, and it was not long before Shirley was on the bridge of the other steamer, with another trumpet.