“Captain Spike, what can be the meaning of all these changes?  The tamper of your vessel is so much altered that I declare I should not have known her!”

“Is it, by George!  Then she is just in the state I want her to be in.”

“But why have you done it—­and what does it all mean?”

“Oh, Molly’s going to bed for the night, and she’s only undressing herself—­that’s all.”

“Yes, Rosy dear, Captain Spike is right.  I remember that my poor Mr. Budd used to talk about The Rose In Bloom having her clothes on, and her clothes off, just as if she was a born woman!  But do n’t you mean to navigate at all in the night, Captain Spike?  Or will the brig navigate without sails?”

“That’s it—­she’s just as good in the dark, under one sort of canvas, as under another.  So, Mr. Mulford, we’ll take a reef in that mainsail; it will bring it nearer to the size of our new foresail, and seem more ship-shape and Brister fashion—­then I think she’ll do, as the night is getting to be rather darkish.”

“Captain Spike,” said the boatswain, who had been set to look-out for that particular change—­“the brig begins to feel the new tide, and sets to windward.”

“Let her go, then—­now is as good a time as another.  We’ve got to run the gantlet, and the sooner it is done the better.”

As the moment seemed propitious, not only Mulford, but all the people, heard this order with satisfaction.  The night was star-light, though not very clear at that.  Objects on the water, however, were more visible than those on the land, while those on the last could be seen well enough, even from the brig, though in confused and somewhat shapeless piles.  When the Swash was brought close by the wind, she had just got into the last reach of the “river,” or that which runs parallel with the Neck for near a mile, doubling where the Sound expands itself, gradually, to a breadth of many leagues.  Still the navigation at the entrance of this end of the Sound was intricate and somewhat dangerous, rendering it indispensable for a vessel of any size to make a crooked course.  The wind stood at south-east, and was very scant to lay through the reach with, while the tide was so slack as barely to possess a visible current at that place.  The steamer lay directly off the Point, mid-channel, as mentioned, showing lights, to mark her position to anything which might be passing in or out.  The great thing was to get by her without exciting her suspicion.  As all on board, the females excepted, knew what their captain was at, the attempt was made amid an anxious and profound silence; or, if any one spoke at all, it was only to give an order in a low tone, or its answer in a simple monosyllable.

Although her aunt assured her that everything which had been done already, and which was now doing, was quite in rule, the quick-eyed and quick-witted Rose noted these unusual proceedings, and had an opinion of her own on the subject.  Spike had gone forward, and posted himself on the weather-side of the forecastle, where he could get the clearest look ahead, and there he remained most of the time, leaving Mulford on the quarter-deck, to work the vessel, Perceiving this, she managed to get near the mate, without attracting her aunt’s attention, and at the same time out of ear-shot.