'T is hard to say of what it consists, yet 'tis of a peculiar shape, causing me to think of the foreyard of a big ship." "Exactly what I name it," I replied, set at ease by his prompt decision.

"How far would you suppose the thing to lie from where we are ?" He studied the barely visible object long and carefully, shading his eyes again with his hands the better to concentrate his gaze upon that misty blot.
"It is like a jump in the dark, my son, to attempt guessing at so visionary a thing.

At times it seemeth to fade away altogether, yet back it cometh once more into the same spot; from where I lie it might be twenty, or it might be forty, feet." "Saint Giles! not so bad a guess either.

I figured it at thirty this afternoon from the bank below, nor am I apt to prove far wrong in such judgment.

Truss up this confounded skirt of mine, while I uncoil the rope for a toss." He opened his eyes wide in amazement.
"Do you hope to cast the loop over the end of the spar ?" "Ay, that offers the only opening to get aboard unobserved," I replied, loosening as I spoke the slender rope coil from about my waist.