empt to
escape. Mulford was, in fact, on board it; and his now fast friend,
Wallace, was in command. The latter wished to seize a traitor, the
former to save the aunt of his weeping bride. Both believed that they
might follow wherever Spike dared to lead. This reasoning was more
bold than judicious notwithstanding, since the cutter was much larger,
and drew twice as much water as the yawl. On it came, nevertheless,
faring much better in the white water than the little craft it
pursued, but necessarily running a much more considerable risk of
hitting the coral, over which it was glancing almost as swiftly as the
waves themselves; still it had thus far escaped--and little did any in
it think of the danger. This cutter pulled ten oars; was an excellent
sea boat; had four armed marines in it, in addition to its crew, but
carried all through the breakers, receiving scarcely a drop of water
on board, on account of the height of its wash-boards, and the general
qualities of the craft. It may be well to add here, that the
Poughkeepsie had shaken out her reefs, and was betraying the
impatience of Capt. Mull to make sail in chase, by firing signal guns
to his boats to bear a hand and return. These signals the three boats
under their oars were endeavoring to obey, but Wallace had got so far
to leeward as now to render the course he was pursuing the wisest.

Mrs. Budd and Biddy had seen the struggle in which the Senor
Montefalderon had been lost, in a sort of stupid horror. Both had
screamed, as was their wont, though neither probably suspected the
truth. But the fell designs of Spike extended to them, as well as to
those whom he had already destroyed. Now the boat was in deep water,
running along the margin of the reef, the waves were much increased in
magnitude, and the comb of the sea was far more menacing to the boat.
This would not have been the case had the rocks formed a lee; but they
did not, running too near the direction of the trades to prevent the
billows that got up a mile or so in the offing, from sending their
swell quite home to the reef. It was this swell, indeed, which caused
the line of white water along the northern margin of the coral,
washing on the rocks by a sort of lateral effort, and breaking, as a
matter of course. In many places no boat could have lived to pass
through it.

Another consideration influenced Spike to persevere. The cutter had
been overhauling him, hand over hand, but since the yawl was r