“I suppose he thought that bell belonged to one of the schooners,” added Clinch. “It sounds more like one of the bells of the churches of Paris than it does like the Josephine’s; and he might have known that it did not belong to one of the schooners,” growled the first officer. The captain had certainly allowed the Ville d’Angers to continue on her course to the northward after he and Tom Speers were reasonably confident that the bell did not indicate the presence of the other vessels of the fleet. Possibly O’Hara’s curiosity had been excited, and he wished to see the vessel that rang the heavy bell; but it is more likely, that, in the conversation which ensued, he had forgotten for the moment that the vessel ahead could not be either of those for which he was in search. He desired to satisfy himself, after he had gone so far to the north,--only a few miles, however,--that the bell was not on either of the vessels, and that they had not run off in this direction. By sweeping off a little to the westward, on his return, he might fall into hearing distance of their bells or horns. “Do you make her out, Mr. Raymond?” asked O’Hara, as he ascended to the top-gallant forecastle. “Distinctly, sir,” replied the officer of the deck. “What is she?” “It seems to be a wreck, with a number of persons on board of her. All her masts have been carried away; she has a square sail rigged on a jury-mast, and is running before the wind,” added Raymond, as he made out the details he mentioned. “I see her now,” continued O’Hara, as he traced the outline of the vessel through the dense mass of fog which covered the sea. “We are running by her, sir,” said Raymond. “Shall I stop her?” “Stop and back her,” replied the captain. “Ring one bell!” shouted the officer of the deck. “One bell!” responded the quartermaster in the pilot-house; and he rang it. “Ring two bells!” added Raymond. “Two bells!” repeated the man in charge of the wheel; and, when he rang them, the screw began to turn backwards. “Stop her!” said O’Hara, when he judged that her headway was overcome. “Ring one bell!” added Raymond. “One bell, sir!” echoed the quartermaster; and the engine stopped. While this was done on board of the steamer, the hands on the wreck let go the halyard of the square sail, and it came down on the deck. The hulk was moving so slowly that it forged only a little ahead of the Ville d’Angers, leaving her on the weather quarter of the deck. From the top-gallant forecastle of the steamer, the officers had a tolerably clear view of the dismasted vessel, which might have been a ship or a barque, for the stumps of her three masts could be distinctly seen. She was painted green, and looked like a very old vessel, for her bow was as stunt-built as the craft of a hundred years ago. “Hail her, Mr. Raymond, and let us ascertain what we can of her,” said Capt. O’Hara.