aul the one boat
any closer to the other. For a couple of breathless seconds longer he
hung on desperately, and then, with a yell of savage disappointment, was
obliged to let go, while somebody in the stern--I fancy it must have
been Fernandez--seeing how things were going, shouted to the crew to
throw out their oars again and give way. But before this could be done
the big boat was half-a-dozen fathoms astern, and we were leaving her so
rapidly that for her to overtake us was a manifest impossibility.
Meanwhile the small boat, with six men in her, was towing astern of the
felucca, with her nose raised high in the air and the water bubbling and
boiling up to the level of the top of her transom, and even slopping in
over it occasionally, so that it was impossible for any of her occupants
to move, lest by so doing they should cause her to fill and swamp. The
said occupants therefore did what they could in the way of relieving
their feelings by vigorously anathematising us in good sonorous Spanish,
and explaining, in short, pithy sentences, the sort of treatment that we
might confidently look for when next they got us into their power. Then
one of them happened to remember that all this time a brace of loaded
pistols were sticking in his belt, whereupon he whipped them out and
blazed away at us, his companions promptly following suit, but, luckily,
without doing us the slightest injury.

By this time the felucca was rapidly nearing the weathermost extremity
of the island that guarded and masked the entrance of the bay, and
presently we weathered it handsomely and bore up to pass out to sea,
gliding between the two Heads a minute later. We were now fairly
outside, and with the first plunge of the little vessel's sharp stem
into the surges that met us as we swept into the open sea a yell of
dismay arose from the occupants of the boat astern, who cried out that
they were being swamped, and implored us, for the love of all the
saints, to cast them off before they were washed out and drowned. I
could not resist the temptation to retort that even, if that happened,
they would still be getting less than their deserts; then, adding that I
hoped I should soon have the pleasure of seeing them all hanged at
Gallows Point, I cast off the painter and set them adrift, leaving them
to get back into the cove as best they could, with only one pair of
small oars among them. We stood on, close-hauled, until we had gained
an offing of