on the lookout for something. Presently he shouted in a stentorian
voice:

"Furl sail!"

The sailors rushed to their posts, and in an instant the sails came
rattling down and were furled.

Was it Count d'Artigas' intention to wait there till daybreak brought
a breeze with it? Presumably, or the sails would have remained hoisted
to catch the faintest puff.

A boat was lowered and Captain Spade jumped into it, accompanied by
a sailor, who paddled it towards an object that was floating on the
water a few yards away.

This object was a small buoy, similar to that which had floated on the
bosom of the Neuse when the _Ebba_ lay off Healthful House.

The buoy, with a towline affixed to it, was lifted into the boat that
was then paddled to the bow of the _Ella_, from the deck of which
another hawser was cast to the captain, who made it fast to the
towline of the buoy. Having dropped the latter overboard again, the
captain and the sailor returned to the ship and the boat was hoisted
in.

Almost immediately the hawser tautened, and the _Elba_, though not a
stitch of canvas had been set, sped off in an easterly direction at a
speed that could not have been less than ten knots an hour.