But, as we
drew nearer to the narrow waters, I had little hope of escaping
without being boarded. In the mean while, we made short stretches off
the land, and back again, all one day and night, working slowly to the
eastward. We still met with no interruption. I was fast getting
confidence in myself; handling the Amanda, in my own judgment, quite
as welt as Marble could have done it, and getting my green hands into
so much method and practice, that I should not have hesitated about
turning round and shaping our course for New York, so far as the mere
business of navigating the vessel was concerned.
The lights on the English coast were safe guides for our movements,
and they let me understand how much we made or lost on a
tack. Dungeness was drawing nearer slowly, to appearances, and I was
beginning to look out for a pilot; when Talcott, who had the watch,
about three in the morning, came with breathless haste into the cabin,
to tell me there was a sail closing with us fast, and, so far as he
could make her out in the darkness, she was lugger-rigged. This was
startling news indeed, for it was almost tantamount to saying the
stranger was a Frenchman. I did not undress at all, and was on deck in
a moment. The vessel in chase was about half a mile distant on our
lee-quarter, but could be plainly enough distinguished, and I saw at a
glance she was a lugger.
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