We had got to be too familiar with the channels, to have any
difficulty in taking the ship through them; and we were soon fairly to
windward of the reef. Our course, however, lay to leeward; and we
passed round the southern side of the rocks, under the same easy
canvass, until we got abreast, and within half a cable's length of the
wreck. To aid my own eyes, I had called up Talcott and Neb; but
neither of us could obtain the least glimpse of the launch. Nothing
was to be seen about the wreck; though I took the precaution to send a
boat to it. All was useless. Marble had gone out to sea, quite alone,
in the Frenchman's launch; and, though twenty pairs of eyes were now
aloft, no one could even fancy that he saw anything in the offing,
that resembled a boat.
Talcott and myself had a private interview on the subject of Marble's
probable course. My mate was of opinion, that our friend had made the
best of his way for some of the inhabited islands, unwilling to remain
here, when it came to the pinch, and yet ashamed to rejoin us. I could
hardly believe this; in such a case, I thought he would have waited
until we had sailed; when he might have left the island also, and
nobody been the wiser. To this Talcott answered that Marble probably
feared our importunities; possibly, compulsion.
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