The brig was at a considerable distance, in chase of a vessel in the offing; but there was no sign of the other boat, or of the schooner, which it was hoped she might have captured. Not knowing the sad fate of Mr Evans and his party, Murray and Adair were eagerly on the lookout for them. Occasionally they turned a glance astern to see what had become of their pursuers; but the pirates seemed to have considered it useless or too hazardous to attempt to cross the bar, and had given up the chase. "I say, Alick, what do you make out that dark object to be there?" exclaimed Adair, pointing to the southward. One after the other examined it through the glass. "It's a whale or a ship's bottom," answered Murray, after a long scrutiny. They reported what they had seen to Hemming. "No whale is likely to have floated into these latitudes," he remarked; "some vessel must have been capsized. Keep her away towards it." The schooner, with a fair breeze, rapidly approached the object they had seen. It was soon ascertained that Hemming was right in his conjectures. They got close up to the wreck. There was no one on her! "By the set of the current here, I judge that she may have come over the very bar we have just crossed--not very long ago either," observed Hemming, thoughtfully. Twice he sailed round the wreck, examining her narrowly. "I am afraid something has happened," he observed at last; "I am not happy on the subject. It cannot be helped though. It may be the lot of any of us. Keep her up once more for the brig." Alick and Terence became very sad when they heard these remarks. They scarcely liked to ask Hemming what he meant. As they talked over the matter, they felt very much alarmed on Jack's account. Still they could not believe that he, their old friend and companion, could possibly be lost. "No, no, he'll turn up somewhere, I'm sure," cried Paddy. "I trust he will," answered Alick, gravely; but he felt very sad and depressed in spirits. Hemming seemed doubtful what to do; whether he would across the bar, make a dash at the pirates, and run up the river and look for his friends, or stand on at once and get greater force from the brig. The latter was the wisest course, and he determined to follow it. The _Archer_ had stood away in chase of another vessel of a suspicious appearance, and when night fell she was nowhere to be seen. Hemming, therefore, hove the schooner to, to wait till her return. Had he gone after her they might very probably, in the darkness of night, have missed each other. Never, perhaps, had my two old schoolfellows passed a more anxious night, even when they were wrecked on the coast of Greece; then the three friends were together; now their minds were racked with doubts of the most painful description as to what had become of Jack and his companions. Had they known of the destruction of the boat and her crew, they would, if possible, have been still more anxious.