maintained!" muttered Ludlow, when the skiff had
reached a distance that assured him of safety. "Here is a symptom that the
rover means soon to quit the coast. The change of dress is some signal to
his superstitious and deluded crew. It is my task to disappoint his
mistress, as he terms her, though it must be confessed that she does not
sleep at her post."

During the ten succeeding minutes, our foiled adventurer had leisure, no
less than motive, to feel how necessary is success to any project whose
means admit of dispute. Had the hawser been cut and the brigantine
stranded, it is probable that the undertaking of the captain would have
been accounted among those happy expedients which, in all pursuits, are
thought to distinguish the mental efforts of men particularly gifted by
Nature; while, under the actual circumstances, he who would have reaped
all the credit of so felicitous an idea, was mentally chafing with the
apprehension that his unlucky design might become known. His companion was
no other than Robert Yarn, the fore-top-man, who, on a former occasion,
had been heard to affirm, that he had already enjoyed so singular a view
of the lady of the brigantine, while assisting to furl the fore-top-sail
of the Coquette.

"This has been a false board, Master Yarn," observed the captain, when the
skiff was past the entrance of the Cove, and some distance down the bay;
"for the credit of our cruise, we will not enter the occurrence in the
log. You understand me, Sir: I trust a word is sufficient for so shrewd a
wit?"

"I hope I know my duty, your Honor, which is to obey orders, though it may
break owners," returned the top-man. "Cutting a hawser with a knife is but
slow work in the best of times; but though one who has little right to
speak in the presence of a gentleman so well taught, it is my opinion that
the steel is not yet sharpened which is to part any rope aboard yon rover,
without the consent of the black-looking woman under her bowsprit."

"And what is the opinion of the berth-deck concerning this strange
brigantine, that we have so long been following without success?"

"That we shall follow her till the last biscuit is eaten, and the
scuttle-butt shall be dry, with no better fortune. It is not my business
to teach your Honor; but there is not a man in the ship, who ever expects
to be a farthing the better for her capture. Men are of many minds
concerning the 'Skimmer of the Seas;' but all are agreed that,