In the meantime, the two revenue craft were much in
earnest. The schooner was one of the fastest
in the service, and had been placed under Montauk,
as described, in the confident expectation of her
being able to compete with even the Molly Swash successfully,
more especially if brought upon a bowline. Her
commander watched the receding form of the brig with
the closest attention, until it was entirely swallowed
up in the darkness, under the land, towards which
he then sheered himself, in order to prevent the Swash
from hauling up, and turning to windward, close in
under the shadow of the island. Against this
manoeuvre, however, the cutter had now taken an effectual
precaution, and her people were satisfied that escape
in that way was impossible.
On the other hand, the steamer was doing very well.
Driven by the breeze, and propelled by her wheels,
away she went, edging further and further from the
island, as the person from the Custom-House succeeded,
as it might be, inch by inch, in persuading the captain
of the necessity of his so doing. At length a
sail was dimly seen ahead, and then no doubt was entertained
that the brig had got to the northward and eastward
of them. Half an hour brought the steamer alongside
of this sail, which turned out to be a brig that had
come over the shoals, and was beating into the ocean,
on her way to one of the southern ports. Her
captain said there had nothing passed to the eastward.
Round went the steamer, and in went all her canvas.
Ten minutes later the look-out saw a sail to the westward,
standing before the wind. Odd as it might seem,
the steamer’s people now fancied they were sure
of the Swash. There she was, coming directly for
them, with squared yards! The distance was short,
or a vessel could not have been seen by that light,
and the two craft were soon near each other.
A gun was actually cleared on board the steamer, ere
it was ascertained that the stranger was the schooner!
It was now midnight, and nothing was in sight but
the coasting brig. Reluctantly, the revenue people
gave the matter up; the Molly Swash having again eluded
them, though by means unknown.
CHAPTER IV.
“Leander dived for love, Leucadia’s
cliff
The Lesbian Sappho leap’d from in
a miff,
To punish Phaon; Icarus went dead,
Because the wax did not continue stiff;
And, had he minded what his father said,
He had not given a name unto his watery
bed.”
Sands.
We must now advance the time several days, and change
the scene to a distant part of the ocean; within the
tropics indeed. The females had suffered slight
attacks of sea-sickness, and recovered from them,
and the brig was safe from all her pursuers. The
manner of Spike’s escape was simple enough,
and without any necromancy. While the steamer,
on the one hand, was standing away to the northward
and eastward, in order to head him off, and the schooner
