ttom, as well as the town-crier knows the streets of Newport. Let
her luff, boy; luff her into the very eye of the wind; luff, you can"----

"You have the ship shivering as it is, sir," said Wilder, sternly: "Should
you get us foul of the slaver who is to pay the cost?"

"I am a general underwriter," returned the opinionated pilot; "my wife
shall mend every hole I make in your sails, with a needle no bigger than a
hair, and with such a palm as a fairy's thimble!"

"This is fine talking, sir, but you are already losing the ship's way;
and, before you have ended your boasts, she will be as fast in irons as a
condemned thief. Keep the sails full, boy; keep them a rap full, sir."

"Ay, ay, keep her a good full," echoed the pilot, who, as the difficulty
of passing to windward became at each instant more obvious, evidently
began to waver in his resolution. "Keep her full-and-by,--I have always
told you full-and-by,--I don't know, Captain, seeing that the wind has
hauled a little, but we shall have to pass to leeward yet; but you will
acknowledge, that, in such case, we shall be obliged to go about."

Now, in point of fact, the wind, though a little lighter than it had been,
was, if anything, a trifle more favourable; nor had Wilder ever, in any
manner, denied that the ship would not have to tack, some twenty minutes
sooner, by going to leeward of the other vessel, than if she had
succeeded in her delicate experiment of passing on the more honourable
side; but, as the vulgarest minds are always the most reluctant to confess
their blunders, the discomfited pilot was disposed to qualify the
concession he found himself compelled to make, by some salvo of the sort,
that he might not lessen his reputation for foresight, among his auditors.

"Keep her away at once," cried Wilder, who was beginning to change the
tones of remonstrance for those of command; "keep the ship away, sir,
while you have room to do it, or, by the"----

His lips became motionless; for his eye happened to fall on the pale,
speaking, and anxious countenance of Gertrude.

"I believe it must be done, seeing that the wind is hauling. Hard up, boy,
and run her under the stern of the ship at anchor. Hold! keep your luff
again; eat into the wind to the bone, boy; lift again; let the light sails
lift. The slaver has run a warp directly across our track. If there's law
in the Plantations, I'll have her Captain before the Courts for this!"

"What means the fellow?