"Now start her, Mr. Mate," said he to Washburn, as he crawled over the rail to the deck.
"Now Cornwood will believe the pilot has left you," said Captain Cayo. "The Islander is still two miles off, and I don't think her people could see me when I crawled back over the rail."
It was a dead calm on the Gulf of Mexico, and the Sylvania was still making eleven and a half knots an hour. I calculated that we had gained two knots on the Islander, one by taking the shorter course, and one by outsailing her.
"I think we had better keep her more to the southward," said Captain Cayo, after he had taken a survey of the horizon, especially in the southwest, where a pile of clouds seemed to be gathering.
"Why to the southward?" I asked.
"I think the captain of the Islander must see by this time that we are gaining on him, and that it is only a question of three or four hours when we shall overhaul her," replied the pilot. "If I were in his place, I should steer for the Tortugas, and leave you five or ten miles behind by dodging into some shallow channel. By keeping to the southward, we shall be in a better position to head her off."
"I see; and we are almost up with the Tortugas. If we keep to the southward, we shall be right in her course if she attempts to run for those islands."
"Right you are, Captain Alick," added the pilot, as he changed the course to due west. "There is a breeze coming up from the southward, which is quite a regular thing towards night. It will blow fresh for some hours, just about a whole sail breeze. I think you had better get your sails set, for the one that uses the wind first will make the most."
I told the mate to call all hands, and put on every rag of canvas we could set. Before he had the foretopsail shaken out, the breeze came, though it was very light. By the time the rest of the sails were set, it was blowing lively. It was five o'clock in the afternoon, and we were fairly up with the Tortugas, and at least a mile to the southward of the Islander. If she attempted to get in among the islands, she must run across our course, and less than a mile ahead of the Sylvania. We could easily cut her off.
"She can't get in among those islands now without running into us," I said, after I had carefully surveyed the situation.