Ritson did not wait for the completion of this operation, but, leaving its superintendence to Mr Bowen (who, like the rest of the watch below, had come on deck to see what was the cause of the unusual tumult), retired once more with the telescope to his former post in the main-topmast cross-trees, and resumed his scrutiny of the strange schooner. George noticed this, and vaguely wondering what had so greatly excited his second mate's curiosity, glanced in the direction to which the telescope was pointing, to find to his surprise that the upper half of the stranger's topsail was visible from the deck. "Why, Ritson," he hailed, "the schooner must have a little air of wind, surely; she is nearing us perceptibly." Ritson, entirely contrary to nautical etiquette, made no reply to the skipper's hail, but remained with his eye immovably glued to the tube for a full minute longer, when he gently closed the instrument and descended slowly to the deck. Arrived there, he walked up to Captain Leicester, and first glancing cautiously round to make sure that no one was within ear-shot, murmured in a low voice-- "She's heading as straight for us as she can steer, sir, _with six sweeps out_--_three of a side_. That means, sir, that her skipper wants so badly to get alongside of us, that he's noways particular about the trouble he takes to bring him here." George gave a low involuntary whistle of astonishment. "That is queer news indeed," he remarked after a contemplative pause. "And you think then, Ritson, that the craft is a--" "A rover, sir; neither more nor less," answered the second mate. "She ain't French, I'm certain; she ain't got the look of it; besides, the Johnnies wouldn't ventur so far as this in a craft of that size--why she ain't more than about a hundred and twenty tons at the very outside. No; she's a rover, that's what _she_ is; a craft with a low beamy hull painted all black, tremendous long spars, and canvas with just no end of a h'ist to it." "Give me the glass," said George; "I'll go as far as the cross-trees and take a look at her myself." The second mate handed over the telescope, and the skipper, proceeding aloft, soon saw quite enough to satisfy him that Ritson's conjectures as to the character and intentions of the schooner were only too likely to prove correct. Descending once more to the deck, he held a hurried consultation with his two officers, the result of which was a determination to fight to the last gasp, if the crew were only willing to stand by them. It would be necessary to ascertain their feeling upon the subject before anything could be done; so, it being then within a quarter of an hour of noon, George and the chief mate went below for their quadrants, took the sun's meridian altitude, and, on the bell being struck to denote the hour of noon and the termination of the morning watch, Captain Leicester gave the word for all hands to muster aft.