"That would alter the case, only I am afraid the ladies will be uneasy about us."
"But they were half prepared, father."
"Jack is right," added Fritz, whose energies were again called into play by the thought of the Nelson in distress; "let us go on."
"Besides, on the word of a pilot, the sea will be very calm and gentle for some time to come: there is not the slightest danger."
"And what if there were?" replied Fritz.
"Well, Willis, I shall give up the pinnace to you till dark," said Becker, "and may God guide us; we shall return to-night, so as to arrive at Rockhouse early in the morning."
"Hurrah for the captain!" cried Willis, throwing a cap into the air.
The evolutions of a cap, thrown up towards the sky or down upon the ground, were very usual modes with Willis of expressing his joy or sorrow.
This homage rendered to Becker, he hastened to let a reef out of the sheet, and the pinnace, for a moment at rest, redoubled its speed, like post-horses starting from the inn-door under the combined influence of a cheer from the postillion and a flourish of the whip.
"There is a cockle-shell that skips along pretty fairly," said Willis; "but it wants two very important things."