"There, they have us now, or never," cried the lieutenant, when the
evolution was completed. "If we fetch to windward off the northern
point, we shall lay out into the offing, and in ten minutes we might
laugh at Queen Anne's pocket-piece, which, you know, old boy, sent a
ball from Dover to Calais."
"Ay, sir, I've heard of the gun," returned the grave seaman, "and a
lively piece it must have been, if the straits were always of the same
width they are now. But I see that, Captain Barnstable, which is more
dangerous than a dozen of the heaviest cannon that were ever cast can
be, at half a league's distance. The water is bubbling through our lee
scuppers, already, sir."
"And what of that? hav'n't I buried her guns often, and yet kept every
spar in her without crack or splinter?"
"Ay, ay, sir, you have done it, and can do it again, where there is sea-
room, which is all that a man wants for comfort in this life. But when
we are out of these chops, we shall be embayed, with a heavy northeaster
setting dead into the bight; it is that which I fear, Captain
Barnstable, more than all the powder and ball in the whole island."
"And yet, Tom, the balls are not to be despised, either; those fellows
have found out their range, and send their iron within hail again: we
walk pretty fast, Mr. Coffin; but a thirty-two can cut-travel us, with
the best wind that ever blew."
Tom threw a cursory glance towards the battery, which had renewed its
fire with a spirit that denoted they saw their object, as he answered:
"It is never worth a man's while to strive to dodge a shot; for they are
all commissioned to do their work, the same as a ship is commissioned to
cruise in certain latitudes: but for the winds and the weather, they are
given for a seafaring man to guard against, by making or shortening
sail, as the case may be.
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