"Aye, rockets," grunted Carter. "And now, what's the next move?" he
muttered to himself dismally.
He got his answer in the fierce swishing whirr of a slender ray of
fire that, shooting violently upward from the sombre hull of the brig,
dissolved at once into a dull red shower of falling sparks. Only one,
white and brilliant, remained alone poised high overhead, and after
glowing vividly for a second, exploded with a feeble report. Almost at
the same time he saw the brig's head fall off the wind, made out the
yards swinging round to fill the main topsail, and heard distinctly the
thud of the first wave thrown off by the advancing bows. The next minute
the tow-line got the strain and his boat started hurriedly after the
brig with a sudden jerk.
Leaning forward, wide awake and attentive, Carter steered. His men
sat one behind another with shoulders up, and arched backs, dozing,
uncomfortable but patient, upon the thwarts. The care requisite to steer
the boat properly in the track of the seething and disturbed water left
by the brig in her rapid course prevented him from reflecting much upon
the incertitude of the future and upon his own unusual situation.
Now he was only exceedingly anxious to see the yacht again, and it was
with a feeling of very real satisfaction that he saw all plain sail
being made on the brig.
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