But these were conclusions that the people of the Coquette made at their leisure, rather than those which suggested themselves on the instant.  The boats, led by the flashes of light, had joined each other, and were rowing fast towards the ship, before the pulses of the actors beat with sufficient calmness to allow of serious reflection; nor was it until the adventurers were below, and in their hammocks, that they found suitable occasion to relate what had occurred to a wondering auditory.  Robert Yarn, the fore-top-man who had felt the locks of the sea-green lady blowing in his face during the squall, took advantage of the circumstance to dilate on his experiences; and, after having advanced certain positions that particularly favored his own theories, he produced one of the crew of the barge, who stood ready to affirm, in any court in Christendom, that he actually saw the process of changing the beautiful and graceful lines that distinguished the hull of the smuggler, into the coarser and more clumsy model of the coaster.

“There are know-nothings,” continued Robert, after he had fortified his position by the testimony in question, “who would deny that the water of the ocean is blue, because the stream that turns the parish-mill happens to be muddy.  But your real mariner, who has lived much in foreign parts, is a man who understands the philosophy of life, and knows when to believe a truth and when to scorn a lie.  As for a vessel changing her character when hard pushed in a chase, there are many instances; though having one so near us, there is less necessity to be roving over distant seas, in search of a case to prove it.  My own opinion concerning this here brigantine, is much as follows;—­that is to say, I do suppose there was once a real living hermaphrodite of her build and rig, and that she might be employed in some such trade as this craft is thought to be in; and that, in some unlucky hour, she and her people met with a mishap, that has condemned her ever since to appear on this coast at stated times.  She has, however, a natural dislike to a royal cruiser; and no doubt the thing is now sailed by those who have little need of compass or observation!  All this being true, it is not wonderful that when the boat’s-crew got on her decks, they found her different from what they had expected.  This much is certain, that when I lay within a boat-hook’s length of her sprit-sail-yard-arm, she was a half-rig, with a woman figure-head, and as pretty a show of gear aloft, as eye ever looked upon; while every thing below was as snug as a tobacco-box with the lid down:—­and here you all say that she is a high-decked schooner, with nothing ship-shape about her!  What more is wanting to prove the truth of what has been stated?—­If any man can gainsay it, let him speak.”

As no man did gainsay it, it is presumed that the reasoning of the top-man gained many proselytes.  It is scarcely necessary to add, how much of mystery and fearful interest was thrown around the redoubtable ’Skimmer of the Seas,’ by the whole transaction.