"Days and days?" said Mark, wonderingly. "Well, I'm not quite sure about how long it was, for the sun made me so giddy. I had to lash myself to the mast, or I should have taken a dive overboard; and my head grew muddly. But it was an awful long time. My eye! how the men whistled!" "For wind?" "Yes; and the more they whistled the more it didn't come. Old Maitland was in a taking, and it wasn't safe to speak to Staples. I say, Van, old chap, he came right up to the cross-trees himself and told me I didn't know how to use a spy-glass. He said the boat with you fellows in lay just due east, and that he could make it out directly." "And did he?" "No; he just didn't; and then, after trying for half an hour, he said mine was a wretchedly poor weak glass, and came down again. You see, the skipper and old Staples were mad about losing the schooner, and just wild about leaving the boat behind and going on so far before coming back to pick you up. "Of course, they couldn't tell that the wind would drop so suddenly," said Mark. "Well, you caught sight of us at last?" "Look here, friend of my boyhood, do you want to finish this authentic narrative?" "No, I don't. Go on." "Then hold your tongue. I do like that, you saying what a tongue I've got. Spikes and spun yarn! It's about nothing to yours. There, I won't keep you longer in suspense, as my old aunt used to say. After the crew had whistled the air quite full, it all condensed and turned into a breeze--on the third evening, I think it was, and I mast-headed myself again, and there was another man sent up to the fore-masthead." "I beg your pardon," said Mark, with a feeble smile upon his thin face. "I said another man was sent up to look-out. I'm afraid that the exposure and fasting have affected your hearing a little, my son. But to go back to our muttons, as the French say. The breeze came on just right from the south-east, and we soon had plenty of sail on, and made some good big tacks; but it came on dark without our having got a squint of you; and that night once more my supper spoilt my rest, and every one else's disagreed with him. For the crew were on deck all night, walking about uncomfortable, and the worst of it was old Whitney's prescriptions didn't do any one a bit of good." "Of course," said Mark, thoughtfully. "It must have been a terrible time of anxiety for the officers." "Oh, I don't know," said Bob, coolly. "It was a nuisance, for that first cutter was always considered our fastest boat. Well, to proceed. Next day, when the sun was hot enough to fry salt junk, someone caught sight of the boat lying like a speck on the glittering water." "Who did?" cried Mark, eagerly. "Who did?" replied Bob, thoughtfully. "Let me see. I half--Dear me now, who--How strange! It must have been somebody, because the ship's head was altered, and--Now how curious it is that I can't think who it was sighted the boat!" "I know," said Mark. "You did, Bob."