As might have been foreseen, the fifty had her extra canvass spread some time before we could open ours, and I fancied she showed the advantage thus obtained in her rate of sailing.  She certainly closed with us, though we closed much faster with the land:  still, there was imminent danger of her overhauling us before we could round the point, unless some decided step were promptly taken to avoid it.

“On the whole, Mr. Marble,” I said, after my mates and myself had taken a long and thoughtful look at the actual state of things—­“On the whole, Mr. Marble, it may be well to take in our light sails, haul our wind, and let the man-of-war come up with us.  We are honest folk, and there is little risk in his seeing all we have to show him.”

“Never think of it!” cried the mate.  “After this long pull, the fellow will be as savage as a bear with a sore head.  He’d not leave a hand on board us, that can take his trick at the wheel; and it’s ten chances to one that he would send the ship to Halifax, under some pretence or other, that the sugars are not sweet enough, or that the coffee was grown in a French island, and tastes French.  No—­no—­Captain Wallingford—­here’s the wind at sou’-sou’-west, and we’re heading nothe-east, and-by-nothe-half-nothe already, with that fellow abaft the mizen riggin’; as soon as we get a p’int more to the nor’ard, we’ll have him fairly in our wake.”

“Ay, that will do very well as a theory, but what can we make of it in practice?  We are coming up towards Montauk at the rate of eight knots, and you have told me yourself there is a reef off that point, directly towards which we must this moment be standing.  At this rate, fifteen minutes might break us up into splinters.”

I could see that Marble was troubled, by the manner in which he rolled his tobacco about, and the riveted gaze he kept on the water ahead.  I had the utmost confidence in his seaman-like prudence and discretion, while I knew he was capable of suggesting anything a ship could possibly perform, in an emergency that called for such an exercise of decision.  At that moment, he forgot our present relations, and went back, as he often did when excited, to the days of our greater equality, and more trying scenes.

“Harkee, Miles,” he said, “the reef is dead ahead of us, but, there is a passage between it and the point.  I went through that passage in the revvylution-war, in chase of an English West Injyman, and stood by the lead the whole way, myself.  Keep her away, Neb—­keep her away, another pint:  so—­steady—­very well, dyce (anglice, thus)—­keep her so, and let John Bull follow us, if he dare.”

“You should be very sure of your channel, Mr. Marble,” I said gravely, “to take so much responsibility on yourself.  Remember my all is embarked in this ship, and the insurance will not be worth a sixpence, if we are lost running through such a place as this in broad daylight.  Reflect a moment, I beg of you, if not certain of what you do.”