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And in addition to this there was an immense amount of passing to and fro between the fleet and the shore, in the transmission of despatches and the landing of stores and ammunition; and in these services the little "Mouette" came in very useful, sometimes rushing backward and forward with bulky packets of official documents, and at other times making the passage with a whole fleet of deeply-laden boats in tow.
He walked briskly along the side of the lake to the Molard jetty, where he found a mouette in act to start for the other side. How he loved these mouette rides, the quick rush through blue water, half Geneva on either side, and the narrow shave under the Pont du Mont Blanc.
This matter settled, I borrowed a pair of breeches, and the long boots belonging to one of them; and the dirty ragged canvas overalls of the other; topping off with a dilapidated blue worsted cap which I had been wearing continually since joining the "Mouette," and my rig-out was complete.
They meekly cast off that portion of their lines which still remained overboard, and taking to their oars, pulled quietly away in the direction which I ordered, or towards the "Mouette," the dinghy being in tow astern.
For the first half- hour we endeavoured to flatter ourselves that we were still holding our own, but at the end of that time such self-deception was no longer possible; the breeze suited us admirably, but there was still too much sea for the little "Mouette," and the "Vigilant's" superior power at length began to tell.
I replied that they were not only perfectly agreeable to me, but that I regarded them as exceedingly generous taking all the circumstances of the case into consideration; that I regretted his violent antipathy to Englishmen, as I feared that, in consequence of it, my presence could never be otherwise than exceedingly disagreeable to him, but that during my enforced sojourn aboard La Mouette I would strive to render my nationality as little obtrusive as possible, and that I trusted we might very soon be fortunate enough to fall in with a craft of some sort into which he could transfer me.
I am, as I think I have already mentioned, an excellent swimmer, and it was upon the possession of this accomplishment that I chiefly based my hopes of success. My plan was simply to row in as near the shore as possible, accompanied by Summers, in the cockleshell of a dinghy belonging to the "Mouette," and then quietly slip into the water and swim the remainder of the distance.
As an incentive to expedition and no doubt, incidentally, to the promotion of the capture of the Francesca the captain informed me that if we managed to accomplish a quick run to Sierra Leone, I should probably be in time to rejoin the Felicidad, which schooner was then at that port, refitting after her engagement with the Mouette.
Somehow I did not greatly regret the change. I was beginning to tire of the cramped accommodation on board the "Mouette;" and although I had been formally reprimanded for my "breach of discipline" I was acute enough to see that my conduct had, after all, made a favourable impression upon the skipper, and that I had, on the whole, risen, rather than fallen, in his estimation.
But it was perilous work for a good hour after the squall struck us. I have occasionally seen in my later days some bold and even reckless match-sailing, but I have never yet seen a craft so desperately overdriven as was, perforce, the little "Mouette" on that memorable night.
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