The master of the boat laughed.
“Wait a bit,” he said. “She won’t go on like that long. P’r’aps we shall have the wind next and she be nowhere.”
Gunson glanced at the oars, but feeling that if we were to overtake the vessel it must be by means of the sails, he said nothing, but sat watching by me till we saw the schooner’s sails die away.
“Gone?” I whispered.
“No; she has changed her course a little and is stern on to us. There, you can see her again.”
To my great delight I saw that it was so, the schooner having now turned, and she grew plainer and plainer in our sight as the moon shone full now on the other side of her sails, and we saw that she too was becalmed. Then in a few minutes our own sails filled, and we went gliding on over the glistening sea, which flashed like silver as we looked back.
I uttered a sigh full of relief, for the schooner still lay becalmed, while we were now rushing through the water.
“Well, my lad,” said Gunson suddenly, “we thought we had lost you. How was it? One of us thought you had turned tail, and slipped away.”
“That wasn’t Mr Gordon, I know,” said Esau. “I ain’t the slipping away sort. Those chaps got hold of me again, and I don’t like going away like this without setting the police at them.”
“You are best away, my lad,” said Gunson.