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A puff of wind came, made the flame of the lamp leap, and outside, high up, the sails fluttered, while near by the block of the foresheet struck a ringing blow on the iron bulwark. A voice far off cried, "Helm up!" another, more faint, answered, "Hard-up, sir!" They became silent waited expectantly.
"We would rather, however, see you returning in the brig, than in the speronara." "I will not forget your wishes," the chief answered laughing, as the boat shoved off. "Now my men let draw the foresheet now she has way on her haul it well aft, and see if she will lay up for the brig yonder. Ah, she does it bravely call me when we near her."
Tom sprang to the position which had been occupied by the spokesman of the party, and grasping the foresheet and the tiller of the boat, he soon brought her up to the wind. Seating himself in the stern, he assumed the management of the schooner, while Hapgood busied himself in taking the pistols from the hands of the rebels, and exploring their pockets, in search of other dangerous weapons.
There was a great volley of cracks from the loose sails, and the ship came to. At the same time the schooner, now on our beam and stripped of her light kites, put in stays and remained on the other tack, with her foresheet to windward. Major Cowper said it was a scandal. The country was going to the dogs because merchantmen were not compelled by law to carry guns.
And meanwhile, in the waist up to his knees in water so low the schooner lay the captain was hacking at the foresheet with a pocket knife. It was a question of seconds, for the Farallone drank deep of the encroaching seas.
Francisco shoved off his boat, and seizing his sculls, pushed astern, picked up the book, which still floated, and laid it to dry on the after-thwart of the boat. He then pulled in for the shore. In the meantime the schooner had let draw her foresheet, and had already left him a quarter of a mile astern. Before Francisco had gained the sand-bank she was hull-down to the northward.
He liked it little, but he did not hesitate. "Fill the topsail, and haul aft the foresheet," were the quiet orders that proclaimed what he intended to do. Both vessels stood on. By some secret process, every man on board the two craft became aware of what was going on, and appeared on deck.
I was hauling in the foresheet and belaying when a sudden waft of fragrance fetched me upright, with head thrown back and nostrils inhaling the breeze. "Ay," said my father, at my elbow, "there is no scent on earth to compare with it. You smell the macchia, lad. Drink well your first draught of it, delicious as first love."
"I only judge by cause and effect, sir; and I know that I shall have to go on shore and wait for you tonight." "That's not unlikely; but let draw the foresheet; we must now get behind the headland." The youngster was right: that evening, a little before dark, he attended his commander on shore, the Enterprise lying to with a lantern at her peak.
Mr Rattlin makes one step to the right "starboard, the wise it call." "Mr Rattlin, what the devil are you about? where's the hand stationed to the foresheet?" said the first-lieutenant. "Jump there and see." Mr Rattlin makes one step to the left hand, "port, the wise it call." "Where's the midshipman o' th' watch where's the midshipman o' th' watch?" roars out the captain.
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