noon
The brigantine was still running before a fair wind , but the breeze had fallen light , and it looked rather as though we were in for a calm spell , with thunder , perhaps , later on . We were going about four or maybe four and a half knots at the time , and the report of the strange sail created as much excitement on board us as though we had been a man-o ' - war . For some time there seemed to be a considerable amount of doubt as to the course that the stranger was steering ; for , as seen from aloft , she appeared to be heading all round the compass ; but it was eventually concluded that , in general direction , her course was the same as our own . As the morning wore on the wind continued to drop , while a heavy bank of thunder-cloud gathered about the horizon ahead , piling itself steadily but imperceptibly higher , until by noon it was as much as Mendouca could do to get the sun for his latitude . By this time we had risen the stranger until we had brought her hull-up on the extreme verge of the horizon ; and the nearer that we drew to her the more eccentric did her manoeuvres appear to be ; she was heading all round the compass , and but for the fact that we could see from time to time that her yards were being swung , and some of her canvas hauled down and hoisted again in the most extraordinary manner , we should have set her down as a derelict . I ought , by the way , to have said that she was a small brig of , apparently , about one hundred and forty tons . Mendouca was thoroughly perplexed at her extraordinary antics ; his glass was scarcely ever off her , and when he removed it from his eye it was only to hand it to me and impatiently demand whether I could not make out something to elucidate the mystery .