But nothing occurred on board that he was near enough to distinguish, and Captain Pereiro, having finished his cigar, and having bethought himself that it would be as well to go below for a drink of wine, was raising himself up from the rail against which he had been leaning, when his eyes caught sight of a dark object bobbing quietly about on the waters, offering no resistance beyond that inert resistance which is inherent in any solid substance. “H’m! what is that?” he questioned himself. “A log of wood? Yes--no--ah! Sancta Maria! it is the body of a man! Holy Mother, preserve us!” Such a sight always saddened Captain Pereiro, for it reminded him of what might possibly be his own fate, and made him pray the more fervently that the beloved wife and children whom he had left at home might be long ere they were deprived of their bread winner. Imagining that it was the body of some shipwrecked sailor that was now within a boat’s length of him, he was about to turn away from the painful sight, when his heart gave a startled bound on hearing a weird cry, as of some human being in the depths of agony and despair. “Mother of God!” he cried, crossing himself vigorously, “what was that?” Convinced that the cry he had heard did not originate on board, Captain Pereiro turned his gaze over the side again in the direction of the weird object which had already impressed him painfully. With ears and eyes strained to their utmost tension, he waited for he scarcely knew what. Would the body float quietly past, with not a sign of life or vitality about it? Or would his impressions be realised, and would it turn out that the awful scream he had heard proceeded from that which he had shudderingly looked upon as a corpse? He was not left many seconds to conjecture, for once more the moonlit air was rent with the desponding shriek of the dying, and this time all doubt and superstitious fear were simultaneously removed from his mind. For not only was it evident whence the cry proceeded, but the hands of the supposed corpse were thrown up imploringly, yet feebly, as though by one from whom the vital spark had nearly fled. Others had now also both seen and heard what was going on, and it scarcely needed Captain Pereiro’s sharp command to back the mainyard in order to induce his sailors to bring about the end he desired. In an incredibly short space of time the course of the “Halcyon” was arrested, a boat was lowered, the drowning man secured, and preparations for starting again made. As soon as rescuers and rescued were safely on board, Captain Pereiro gave the order to brace the mainyard, and speedily, with well-filled sails, the barque was being steered on her course once more. It seemed, however, that the fine fellows had wasted their energies in a vain cause, for the stranger had relapsed into total unconsciousness, which was so profound that for a long time it resisted every benevolent effort to dispel it.