“Well, sir, I trust that we have given that suspicious-looking gentleman the go-by,” observed the captain to Colonel Armytage. “Perhaps it might be better to inform the ladies of this, to tranquillise any alarm they may still feel.”
“Have no anxiety on that score. I do not allow my wife and daughter to indulge in idle apprehensions,” answered the colonel in the supercilious tone in which he frequently spoke.
“This man may be a very important personage, but he is a very disagreeable one,” thought Captain Winslow, as he turned away.
The worthy captain was well-nigh wearied out, so, summoning his first officer to take charge of the deck, he returned to his cabin to endeavour to snatch a short rest, leaving directions to be summoned should any change occur in the present state of things.
The first officer had been one of the most anxious to fight. He believed that they might not only beat off the enemy, but take her also, and he now kept a bright look-out, hoping that she might again appear. He was a young man, and thought more of the honour and glory to be gained than of the risk to be run. Over and over again his night-glass swept round in the direction of the eastern horizon. The range of his vision was limited. After taking a long gaze he suddenly exclaimed, “There she is though!” He called an old quartermaster and bade him take the glass.
“Yes, sir, she’s the ship, there’s no doubt about it. She has been keeping way easily with us,” observed the seaman. “I’d sooner that craft, Mr Lloyd, were a hundred miles away, or a thousand, for that matter, than where she is: we none of us likes her looks, and she’ll prove a rummish customer if she gets alongside of us.”
“Oh, never fear, Davis; you’ll all fight like Britons, and beat her off; or take her, maybe. But call the captain, and let him know our friend is in sight, away on the larboard beam.”
Captain Winslow was on deck in an instant. He had been dreaming of the stranger. There she moved like a dark phantom, silently stalking over the waters.
There was something peculiarly ominous in her appearance. The very silence with which she glided on through the darkness was threatening. She soon came up within range, but not a shot was fired. There she remained gliding on, with her courses brailed up, keeping pace with the Indiaman. It was very evident that she might have come down upon her long before had she chosen.
The approach of the stranger quickly became known in the cabin, and the gentlemen passengers were soon congregating on deck, many of them buckling on their swords and examining the locks of their pistols by the light of the binnacle lamp. Various opinions were offered. Some thought that Captain Winslow ought to begin the battle by firing a broadside into the stranger; but he declined the proposal, and suggested that it would be better to ascertain first whether she was inimically disposed.