sel, and he would gladly at that moment have been landed
again on the main.

In the meantime the progress of the cutter was steady and rapid. She
held her way mid-channel, now inclining to the gusts, and now rising
again, like the philosopher that bends to the calamities of life to
resume his erect attitude as they pass away, but always piling the water
beneath her bows in foam. Although she was under so very short canvas,
her velocity was great, and there could not have elapsed ten minutes
between the time when her sails were first seen glancing past the trees
and bushes in the distance and the moment when she was abreast of
the blockhouse. Cap and Pathfinder leaned forward, as the cutter came
beneath their eyrie, eager to get a better view of her deck, when, to
the delight of both, Jasper Eau-douce sprang upon his feet and gave
three hearty cheers. Regardless of all risk, Cap leaped upon the rampart
of logs and returned the greeting, cheer for cheer. Happily, the policy
of the enemy saved the latter; for they still lay quiet, not a rifle
being discharged. On the other hand, Pathfinder kept in view the useful,
utterly disregarding the mere dramatic part of warfare. The moment he
beheld his friend Jasper, he called out to him with stentorian lungs,--

"Stand by us, lad, and the day's our own! Give 'em a grist in yonder
bushes, and you'll put 'em up like partridges."

Part of this reached Jasper's ears, but most was borne off to leeward on
the wings of the wind. By the time this was said, the _Scud_ had driven
past, and in the next moment she was hid from view by the grove in which
the blockhouse was partially concealed.

Two anxious minutes succeeded; but, at the expiration of that brief
space, the sails were again gleaming through the trees, Jasper having
wore, jibed, and hauled up under the lee of the island on the other
tack. The wind was free enough, as has been already explained, to admit
of this manoeuvre; and the cutter, catching the current under her lee
bow, was breasted up to her course in a way that showed she would come
out to windward of the island again without any difficulty. This
whole evolution was made with the greatest facility, not a sheet being
touched, the sails trimming themselves, the rudder alone controlling
the admirable machine. The object appeared to be a reconnoissance. When,
however, the _Scud_ had made the circuit of the entire island, and had
again got her weatherly position in the cha