"I can't help believing that they see or suspect more, in regard to her, than appears to us," said Morton, "or they would not fail to make an attempt to recover the yawl." "It is rapidly getting dark," said Arthur, "and I think we had better put up the sail, and steer for the stranger." "Right," said Morton, "for she may possibly tack before she sees us." Morton and myself proceeded to step the mast, and rig the sail; meantime, Arthur got Browne's coat off, and examined and bandaged the wound on his arm, which had been bleeding all the while profusely; he pronounced it to be but a trifling hurt. A breeze from the south-east had sprung up at sunset, and we now had a free wind to fill our sail, as we steered directly out to sea to meet the stranger, which was still at too great a distance to make it probable that we had been seen by her people. It was with a feeling of anxiety and uneasiness, that I saw the faint twilight fading away, with the suddenness usual in those latitudes, and the darkness gathering rapidly round us. Already the east was wrapped in gloom, and only a faint streak of light along the western horizon marked the spot where the sun had so recently disappeared. "How suddenly the night has come upon us," said Arthur, who had been peering through the dusk toward the approaching vessel, in anxious silence; "O, for twenty minutes more of daylight! I fear that she is about tacking." This announcement filled us all with dismay, and every eye was strained towards her with intense and painful interest. Meantime, the breeze had freshened somewhat and we now had rather more of it than we desired, as our little boat was but poorly fitted to navigate the open ocean in rough weather. Johnny began to manifest some alarm, as we were tossed like a chip from wave to wave, and occasionally deluged with spray, by a sea bursting with a rude shock over our bow. I had not even in the violent storm of the preceding week, experienced such a sense of insecurity, such a feeling of helplessness, as now, when the actual danger was comparatively slight. The waves seemed tenfold larger and more threatening than when viewed from the deck of a large vessel. As we sunk into the trough of the sea, our horizon was contracted to the breadth of half-a-dozen yards, and we entirely lost sight of the land, and of both ships. But it was evident that we were moving through the water with considerable velocity, and there was encouragement in that, for we felt confident that if the stranger should hold on her present course but a little longer, we should be on board of her before our safety would be seriously endangered by the increasing breeze.