s may nab us after all. Jump down into the gig, cast Jose adrift,
and bid him come aboard instantly; we have not a moment to lose."

And as I spoke I made a dash at the trysail brails, cast them off, and
proceeded to drag upon the fall of the outhaul tackle. Presently
Fonseca returned with Jose, and both lent a hand with a will, the latter
seeming to be quite as anxious as any of us to avoid being taken by his
former companions. Then, rushing forward, I laid out on the jib-boom
and cast loose the inner jib, which Fonseca and Jose at once proceeded
to hoist. Then, hauling the jib-sheet over to windward, we cast off the
slip by which the brig was, as usual, secured to her buoy, and I then
ran aft and put the helm hard down. The brig was now adrift, and with
stern way on her; but with the helm hard down she soon paid off, when we
hauled aft the lee jib-sheet, and she at once began to forge ahead.
But, unfortunately for us, it was almost a dead beat of nearly two miles
out to sea, with not very much room to manoeuvre in. If, therefore, the
people ashore happened to be specially handy with their tools they might
yet get their boat repaired in time to give us trouble; for, smart ship
as the _Barracouta_ undoubtedly was, the small amount of sail which we
now had set was only sufficient to put her along at about two knots in
the hour, or barely to give her steerage way. But she carried a main-
topmast staysail which was a fine big sail, the stay reaching from the
main-topmast cross-trees down to the foremast within about ten feet of
the deck, and this sail we now got on her, with great advantage, her
speed at once increasing to nearly four knots. But under this canvas I
soon found that she griped rather badly; that is to say, she required an
undue amount of weather helm to hold her straight to her course. We
therefore loosed and set the fore-topmast staysail, after which she not
only practically steered herself, but further increased her speed to not
far short of five knots. We had now as much canvas set as we three men
could very well manage, and quite enough to keep us going so soon as we
should get outside. My only anxiety was lest we should have trouble
with the people before we could pass out clear of the heads into the
open ocean. Once there I knew that we could easily run away from any
rowboat that they could launch. And that reminded me that we had no
less than four boats towing behind us, and that they retar