It was, we thought, more than a league away, a light that must be on land and made by man.

It dwindled, out it went into night and there ran only plain silver.

We waited while a man might have swam from us to the _Pinta_, then forth it started again, red star that was no star.

Some one below us cried, "Ho, look!" The Admiral raised his voice, it rang over ship.

"Aye! I saw it a time ago, have seen it thrice! I, the Admiral, saw first." Men were crowding to the side to look, then it went out as though a wave had crept up and drenched it.