Which was not a pretty speech for a number of reasons, chief of them being that the man to whom he spoke had been left in that same lugubrious position some few months previously. But Captain Bell was possessed of his full share of shrewdness, and it was already apparent to his rheumy eye that his guest was in a fair way of being consoled. Halfway across the mouth of the Chesapeake that same rheumy eye, which was one of the quickest aboard to pick up objects at sea, discovered a diminutive fleck on the drab wall of the sky. "Here comes that infernal Pilot-fish!" said he. "I thought we'd lost him!" Wood, sufficiently keen of sight, marvelled. There had been no question in Bell's voice; he was merely stating a fact. Wood's glass revealed it as a fact. Like most men who have certain talents which excel and some lacking faculty which can never be more than an object of ridicule, Bell was unconscious of the former and fought hard for recognition in the latter. In the same connection, he was a profane man, yet an authority on the Bible. At heart he was religious. The news of the Pilot-fish brought all hands on deck more quickly than might have done an alarm of fire. The wind had got into the northeast, and Bell, scanning the weather conditions with an experienced eye, told Wood that it looked to him as if they were in for a hard "easter," and that the following morning might find the _Shark_ behind the Delaware Breakwater, there to wait until the weather improved. The _Daffodil_ was coming up with the fresh easterly breeze, valiantly bucking the strong ebb tide. As the two vessels rapidly approached, a peculiar quiet fell upon the deck of the _Shark_. The little yawl looked very tiny and very much alone upon that broad expanse of grey water, and the knowledge that she was coming in from the sea at the end of a run of nearly a thousand miles inspired a sort of admiration. As she drew closer aboard, they could see the ruddy-yellow head of Applebo projecting above the high coaming, and forward the dark, squat figure of the Finn standing by the mast. "Stand by to give 'em a dip o' the ensign..." growled Bell to the quartermaster of the watch. The courses of the two vessels would bring them abreast of one another at the distance of about half a mile. Hermione glanced at her father. "Why don't you speak him and tell him where we're bound?" she asked. "Not a bit of it!" snapped Bell. "Let him find out for himself at Old Point." With everything taut and drawing, the _Daffodil_ drew abeam, and through the glass Hermione saw the Finn scramble aft and run a small packet to the peak. "There goes his ensign in stops..." said she. "Dip!" ordered Bell. The _Shark's_ ensign came slowly down. At the same moment Applebo broke out his at the main-peak. The _Daffodil_ held straight on her course toward Hampton Roads. "I'll bet he hasn't had much sleep!" said Bell, grimly.