This order lowered Dodd fifty per cent. in Mr. Sharpe's estimation. He
held his tongue as long as he could: but at last his surprise and
dissatisfaction burst out of him, "Won't that bring him out on us!"
"Very likely, sir," replied Dodd.
"Begging your pardon, captain, would it not be wiser to keep our course,
and show the blackguard we don't fear him?"
"When we _do!_ Sharpe, he has made up his mind an hour ago whether to lie
still or bite; my changing my course two points won't change his mind,
but it may make him declare it; and _I_ must know what he does intend
before I run the ship into the narrows ahead."
"Oh, I see," said Sharpe, half convinced.
The alteration in the _Agra's_ course produced no movement on the part of
the mysterious schooner. She lay-to under the land still, and with only a
few hands on deck, while the _Agra_ edged away from her and entered the
Straits between Long Island and Point Leat, leaving the schooner about
two miles and a half distant to the N.W.
Ah! The stranger's deck swarms black with men.
His sham ports fell as if by magic, his gums grinned through the gaps
like black teeth; his huge foresail rose and filled, and out he came in
chase.
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