I looked also to seaward; a large vessel was standing in for the land, her white sails, as she glided down towards us, drifting along the calm, gently heaving swell of the smooth water, like a white wreath of mist. To leeward of her about a mile, and further in the offing, two black specks were visible, which first neared each other, and then receded; one standing out to sea, and the other in for the land, as if they had been two small vessels beating up, and crossing and recrossing on opposite tacks, between us and the moon. If it had been war time, I would have said they were manoeuvring to cut off the ship; but as it was, I thought nothing of it. Presently the vessel approaching, fired a gun, and hoisted a light, which I presumed to be the signal for a pilot, on which two boats shoved out towards her from under the land. I watched them till they got alongside, when I heard a loud startled shout, and then voices, as if in alarm, and the sound of a scuffle, during which several musket or pistol shots went off--next minute all was quiet again, but the yards and sails of the ship were immediately braced round, as she hauled by the wind, and stood off the land. "Curse the blockhead, why does he meddle with _her_?" said a voice near me. I started--it could only have been the solitary person I had formerly noticed. As I turned, one of the lozenges of blinds fell down, and opened with a rattle that made me start, and disturbed him. "What does the ship mean by manoeuvring in that incomprehensible way?" said I. "Really can't tell, sir," said the person addressed, evidently surprised at my vicinity--"I suppose she has been disappointed in getting a pilot, and intends to lie off and on till daylight." "But what could the noise of scuffling be? Didn't you hear it?" I continued,--"and the pistol shots?" "Pistol shots! No. I heard no pistol shots," quoth he, drily. "The devil you didn't--then you must have been deaf," thought I; and as he turned to rejoin the dancers, I made him out, the moment he came into the light, to be the stranger indicated in the conversation between the landlord and his guest at supper. "Very odd all this," quoth I; and I should say, were he a suspicious character, that it was very shallow in this chap to let such an exclamation escape him; and I again looked earnestly at him. "Ah! I see, he has been drinking wine, like our friend the skipper." I joined our host, but still I could not avoid again asking him who the deuce this same stranger was? "I really cannot tell you, Mr Brail. He is a very well-bred man--you see _that_ yourself,--but there is something uncommon about him, unquestionably. All the women are dying to know who he is, he dances so well." "Ay, and talks so bewitchingly," quoth my lady-hostess--no less a person,--as she passed close to us, hanging on the very individual's arm. "Heyday! It's my turn now--so! Confound the fellow, who _can_ he be?" said my host, laughing.