The two men were pulled apart and the others had hardly gathered up their scattered ditty-bags and personal belongings when a commotion was observed among the officers on the bridge. They were gazing through their glasses at a puff of smoke on the north-western horizon. In the course of fifteen minutes it had grown to a small-sized cloud. "She must have legs, to overhaul us in this way," observed Ensign Dobson, with his binocular at his eyes. "How much were we making at the last log, quartermaster?" "Fifteen strong, sir." "Then that fellow's doing a good twenty," added the officer. "Can you make him out, Mr. Liddon?" "It looks to me like a 'destroyer,'" replied the other, readjusting the lenses of his glass. "It's a rather small, black craft, walking up on us hand over fist." "Bo'sun!" called Dobson to a man who stood near on the lower deck. "Yes, sir!" "Set the ensign." "Aye, aye, sir!" "There goes his flag!" said Dobson, excitedly. "I can't make out what it is, but we'll soon know. Shall I slow down a bit, sir?" he asked the lieutenant-commander, who had joined the other officers on the bridge. "Not yet," said Rexdale. "We can't afford to tie up for every fellow that wants to speak us. Let him come up. He'll signal his business soon, if he's really after us." The stranger approached rapidly, and could now be seen with the naked eye, as was attested by the watch on deck lining the bulwarks. There was no apprehension, as the United States had no enemies afloat; still the appearance, so far out at sea, of an unknown vessel bearing down swiftly on the _Osprey_, was enough to attract the lively attention of forecastle as well as cabin. The kitten episode was quite forgotten, as the men thronged to the rail. "Ah," exclaimed a brawny Irishman, waving his bare arm in the direction of the stranger, "w'ot a pity it ain't war-toimes now! Sure it's a lovely bit av a foight we'd be lookin' for, wid that smoker!" "War nothin'!" retorted the old gunner. "I'm willin' to keep me arms and legs on fur a while longer. What's the use o' bein' shot to pieces, anyway!" "Why don't he h'ist his ens'n?" growled another of the crew. "Manners is manners, I say." "It is h'isted," said Scupp, "only ye can't see it, 'cos it blows straight out forrard on this west wind he's comin' afore. The officers up there'll soon be makin' it out, I reckon." But the uniformed group on the bridge had no such easy task. They scrutinised the flag again and again, without success. "I can't make the thing out," said Dobson, lowering the glasses, "can you, Mr. Liddon?" "Can't say I can. It blew out once, and looked like nothing I ever saw before--a sort of twenty-legged spider in the centre. It's like nothing I ever saw in these waters. If we were on the Asiatic coast----" "Who has the sharpest eyes among the men, quartermaster?" enquired the commander. "I rather think, sir, them Japs can see the farthest."