Jack never knew how long he drifted about at the mercy of the waves, clinging with desperation to the lifebuoy; but at length, as he was beginning to feel that his strength was fast ebbing away, and that the end must be very near, the fog began to almost imperceptibly melt away, and the middy saw to his delight that there was a sailing-vessel within half a mile of him, staggering along in his direction under a reefed sail, a pile of foamy water at her bows. Our hero's heart sank a little, for he quickly perceived that the stranger was a dhow. Of the "Forte" there was no sign, but the horizon was by no means clear as yet. "After all, she may be a lawful trader," muttered Jack, "and if I can only manage to attract her attention, her captain will no doubt land me at Aden or some British port." By great good fortune, the dhow held straight on her course, and this brought her within a fathom or two of the spot where our hero was so bravely fighting the waves. So exhausted and weak had Jack now become, however, that when he tried to shout in order to attract the attention of the crew of the stranger he found himself unable to utter a sound. Nor did he dare to quit his hold of the lifebuoy even to wave one arm. [Illustration: _Squatting close beside his prisoner was Ahmed Bungoo._] The captain of the dhow, who happened to be steering his vessel, had the eyes of a lynx, and it did not escape his glance that upon his port bow was a European castaway, clinging to a buoy and buffeted about by a still tempestuous sea. The Arab skipper hated Englishmen like poison, and it would have been quite in keeping with his character to have held contemptuously on his course and left a drowning human creature to perish, but on this occasion he was induced to change his mind by the fact that he thought he perceived the flash of brass buttons upon the middy's jacket, as it rose and fell upon the tumbling waves. The love of gain had a firm hold upon the sordid mind of this Arab chief. Perchance this was a naval officer, for whose release from captivity the British Government might be induced to pay a heavy ransom! It was too good an opportunity to be lost! The wily Arab promptly hove-to his clumsy craft, and sent away a boat to rescue the castaway. The long and terrible strain had been too much even for a boy of unusual physical strength. No sooner was Jack bundled unceremoniously on board the dhow than he fainted dead away.