connection with the affair was did not
yet appear. He could not have known that Nick Boomsby was on board of
the Islander, for he had gone to St. Augustine, where we had put in on
account of stress of weather. He could not have known that we intended
to put into St. Augustine, for we had no intention to do so when we
left Jacksonville.

Possibly Cornwood had put one thing and another together until he
believed Nick had taken the four thousand dollars, and had made his
escape in the Islander. It looked as though Cornwood had some
connection with the robbery, for the Islander had hurried on her way to
New Orleans, if she was bound there, as soon as the Sylvania came in
sight. If he had delivered the letter to Captain Blastblow, the latter
would have remained in Key West until the arrival of her owner, as
instructed by the written message.

"Cornwood and Nick did a good deal of talking, it appears, while the
Islander was here," said Washburn, "though we don't know what it was
all about."

"I have no doubt Cornwood took the management of the case at this
point," I replied. "Nick must have forged one letter to induce Captain
Blastblow to start the Islander without her owner and his family; and I
have no doubt Cornwood forged another to make him continue the voyage."

"I hope we shall know all about the matter in a few hours more," said
Washburn.

"You understand the entire situation now, Captain Cayo, and see why we
want to overhaul the Islander," I continued.

"I see the whole of it, and I will do the best I can to outsail the
other steamer; but that depends more on your vessel than on me,"
replied the pilot. "Will you let your men heave the log?"

We had been driving the Sylvania to her utmost, and Ben Bowman reported
that we were making eleven and a half knots, which was doing
exceedingly well in the teeth of a fresh north-west wind. Captain Cayo
went to the westward of the bar-buoy, while the Islander had gone to
the eastward of it more than a mile. I saw that we had gained a mile by
this course, and the Islander was not more than four miles ahead of us.

I gave the pilot my views of the relative speed of the two vessels,
though I told him that Captain Blastblow might get a higher rate of
speed out of her than any one had done before.

"We shall soon see which sails fastest," said Captain Cayo. "The
Islander has laid her course for the South-west Pass of the
Mississippi. All you have to do is to follow her. Th