On we went and nearer and nearer we seemed together.

Oh for one sign of them, were it even a gun across our path! But sign there came none.

The darkness seemed blacker than ever and-- All of a sudden I seemed to detect something--a spark, or a glow, or the luminous break of a wave.

So swiftly it came and went, that it was gone before I could look.

A trick of my vision, thought I.