“I wish I knew where Daggett makes himself out,” said the young master, just as the day closed on a most stormy and dirty-looking night.  “I don’t half like the appearance of the weather; but, I do not wish to ware off the land, with that fellow ahead and nearer to the danger, if there be any, than we are ourselves.”

Here, Roswell Gardiner manifested a weakness that lies at the bottom of half our blunders.  He did not like to be outdone by a competitor, even in his mistakes.  If the Sea Lion of Holmes’ Hole could hold on, on that tack, why might not the Sea Lion of Oyster Pond do the same?  It is by this process of human vanity that men sustain each other in wrong, and folly obtains the sanction of numbers, if not that of reason.  In this practice we see one of the causes of the masses becoming misled, and this seldom happens without their becoming oppressive.

Roswell Gardiner, however, did not neglect the lead.  The schooner had merely to luff close to the wind, and they were in a proper state to sound.  This they did twice, during that night, and with a very sensible diminution in the depth of the water.  It was evident that the schooner was getting pretty close in on the coast, the wind coming out nearly at south, in squalls.  Her commander held on, for he thought there were indications of a change, and he still did not like to ware so long as his rival of the Vineyard kept on the larboard tack.  In this way, each encouraging the other in recklessness, did these two craft run nearly into the lion’s jaw, as it might be; for, when the day re-appeared, the wind veered round to the eastward, a little northerly, bringing the craft directly on a lee-shore, blowing at the time so heavily as to render a foresail reefed down to a mere rag, more canvass than the little vessels could well bear.  As the day returned, and the drizzle cleared off a little, land was seen to leeward, stretching slightly to seaward, both ahead and astern!  On consulting his charts, and after getting a pretty good look at the coast from aloft, Roswell Gardiner became satisfied that he was off Currituck, which placed him near six degrees to the southward of his port of departure, and about four to the westward.  Our young man now deeply felt that a foolish rivalry had led him into an error, and he regretted that he had not wore the previous evening, when he might have had an offing that would have enabled him to stand in either direction, clearing the land.  As things were, he was not by any means certain of the course he ought to pursue.

Little did Gardiner imagine that the reason why Daggett had thus stood on, was solely the wish to keep him company; for, that person, in consequence of Gardiner’s running so close in towards the coast, had taken up the notion that the Sea Lion of Oyster Pond meant to pass through the West Indies, visiting the key, which was thought to contain treasure, and of which he had some accounts that had aroused all his thirst for gold, without giving him the clue necessary to obtain it.  Thus it was that a mistaken watchfulness on one side, and a mistaken pride on the other, had brought these two vessels into as dangerous a position as could have been obtained for them by a direct attempt to place them in extreme jeopardy.