"She is a full-rigged ship, sir," said I; "but, as you anticipated, she is still too far off for identification.  But she is steering the course that we have decided the _Virginia_ ought to be steering; and it has just occurred to me that, should she indeed be that craft, she may give us a great deal of trouble if she discovers us prematurely, seeing that she is to windward.  I would therefore suggest, sir, that we bear up and make sail, so as to keep ahead of her until dark, and then--"