But the mate
resisted this, answering that he thought he could take care of our
boat a while longer, at least. Accordingly, the old arrangement was
maintained, the party endeavouring to keep as near together as
possible.
About midnight it began to blow in squalls, and two or three times we
found it necessary to take in our sails, our oars, and pull the boat
head to sea, in order to prevent her swamping. The consequence was,
that we lost sight of the launch, and, though we always kept away to
our course as soon as the puffs would allow, when the sun rose we saw
nothing of our late companions. I have sometimes thought Mr. Marble
parted company on purpose, though he seemed much concerned next
morning when he had ascertained the launch was nowhere to be
seen. After looking about for an hour, and the wind moderating, we
made sail close on the wind; a direction that would soon have taken us
away from the launch, had the latter been close alongside when we
first took it. We made good progress all this day, and at evening,
having now been out fifty-four hours, we supposed ourselves to be
rather more than half-way on the road to our haven. It fell calm in
the night, and the next morning we got the wind right aft. This gave
us a famous shove, for we sometimes made six and seven knots in the
hour.
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