Come, Master Coffin, what think
you! We have three resources before us, let us hear which is jour
choice; first, we can turn and fight and be sunk; secondly, we can pull
to the land, and endeavor to make good our retreat to the schooner in
that manner; and thirdly, we can head to the shore, and possibly, by
running under the guns of that fellow, get the wind of him, and keep the
air in our nostrils, after the manner of the whale. Damn the whale! but
for the tow the black rascal gave us, we should have been out of sight
of this rover!"
"If we fight," said Tom, with quite as much composure as his commander
manifested, "we shall be taken or sunk; if we land, sir, I shall be
taken for one man, as I never could make any headway on dry ground; and
if we try to get the wind of him by pulling under the cliffs, we shall
be cut off by a parcel of lubbers that I can see running along their
edges, hoping, I dare say, that they shall be able to get a skulking
shot at a boat's crew of honest seafaring men."
"You speak with as much truth as philosophy, Tom," said Barnstable, who
saw his slender hopes of success curtailed by the open appearance of the
horse and foot on the cliffs. "These Englishmen have not slept the last
night, and I fear Griffith and Manual will fare but badly. That fellow
brings a capful of wind down with him--'tis just his play, and he walks
like a race-horse. Ha! he begins to be in earnest!"
While Barnstable was speaking, a column of white smoke was seen issuing
from the bows of the cutter; and as the report of a cannon was wafted to
their ears, the shot was seen skipping from wave to wave, tossing the
water in spray, and flying to a considerable distance beyond them.
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