"I see the whole of it, and I will do the best I can to outsail the other steamer; but that depends more on your vessel than on me,"
replied the pilot. "Will you let your men heave the log?"
We had been driving the Sylvania to her utmost, and Ben Bowman reported that we were making eleven and a half knots, which was doing exceedingly well in the teeth of a fresh north-west wind. Captain Cayo went to the westward of the bar-buoy, while the Islander had gone to the eastward of it more than a mile. I saw that we had gained a mile by this course, and the Islander was not more than four miles ahead of us.
I gave the pilot my views of the relative speed of the two vessels, though I told him that Captain Blastblow might get a higher rate of speed out of her than any one had done before.
"We shall soon see which sails fastest," said Captain Cayo. "The Islander has laid her course for the South-west Pa.s.s of the Mississippi. All you have to do is to follow her. There is our pilot-boat; and this is as far as we usually take vessels."
"But I don"t care to have you leave us here, Captain Cayo," I replied.
"It is clear enough that the Islander intends to keep out of our way.
She may run in among the Dry Tortugas, and having a pilot on board, she could easily elude us."
"She might do that when she finds you are gaining on her, as I see you are, for we have made half a knot on her since we came out of the channel. But if we leave the pilot-boat behind, I can"t get off the steamer when you don"t want me any longer. Besides, it looks like a change of weather, and pilots are in demand when it is foggy or blows, at this season of the year."
"What sort of weather do you expect next?" I asked.
"The wind will work round to the south-west, and then it will be foggy," replied the pilot, scanning the horizon.
"Can"t you go to New Orleans, or remain on board till we meet a steamer for Key West?" I suggested.
"I should be very happy to go to New Orleans with you, for there will be no steamer for Key West for several days. But I am not a pilot for the Mississippi River, and you will have to pay another just the same as though I were not on board."
He named his price, besides expenses; and as it was reasonable, I accepted it at once. My experience the night before, when I found the Sylvania was ten miles from where I supposed she was, made me extremely cautious. I felt entirely competent to take the steamer to the South-east Pa.s.s of the Mississippi; but it was evident that Cornwood had obtained control of the Islander, acting as the agent of Colonel Shepard, and that he would not permit the Sylvania to come near her if he could avoid it. Probably the Conch who had acted as her pilot so far would understand the channels of the Tortugas, and could easily take the Islander where I should not care to follow her.
The pilot-boat lay very nearly in our course, and a boat put off from her as we approached. Captain Cayo stopped the steamer when the boat was abreast of her. He jumped upon the rail, and told the oarsmen that he was going to New Orleans.
"Now start her, Mr. Mate," said he to Washburn, as he crawled over the rail to the deck.
"Now Cornwood will believe the pilot has left you," said Captain Cayo.
"The Islander is still two miles off, and I don"t think her people could see me when I crawled back over the rail."
It was a dead calm on the Gulf of Mexico, and the Sylvania was still making eleven and a half knots an hour. I calculated that we had gained two knots on the Islander, one by taking the shorter course, and one by outsailing her.
"I think we had better keep her more to the southward," said Captain Cayo, after he had taken a survey of the horizon, especially in the southwest, where a pile of clouds seemed to be gathering.
"Why to the southward?" I asked.
"I think the captain of the Islander must see by this time that we are gaining on him, and that it is only a question of three or four hours when we shall overhaul her," replied the pilot. "If I were in his place, I should steer for the Tortugas, and leave you five or ten miles behind by dodging into some shallow channel. By keeping to the southward, we shall be in a better position to head her off."
"I see; and we are almost up with the Tortugas. If we keep to the southward, we shall be right in her course if she attempts to run for those islands."
"Right you are, Captain Alick," added the pilot, as he changed the course to due west. "There is a breeze coming up from the southward, which is quite a regular thing towards night. It will blow fresh for some hours, just about a whole sail breeze. I think you had better get your sails set, for the one that uses the wind first will make the most."
I told the mate to call all hands, and put on every rag of canvas we could set. Before he had the foretopsail shaken out, the breeze came, though it was very light. By the time the rest of the sails were set, it was blowing lively. It was five o"clock in the afternoon, and we were fairly up with the Tortugas, and at least a mile to the southward of the Islander. If she attempted to get in among the islands, she must run across our course, and less than a mile ahead of the Sylvania. We could easily cut her off.
"She can"t get in among those islands now without running into us," I said, after I had carefully surveyed the situation.
"That is as true as preaching," added Captain Cayo, laughing, when he saw that the other steamer was checkmated if she had intended to resort to any stratagem to avoid us. "We may as well put the steamer on her course for the South-east Pa.s.s."
He suited his action to the words. The wind was freshening, and the log indicated that we were making twelve knots strong. Moses was still crowding on all the steam the boiler would bear, and I am sure the yacht never sailed any faster.
At six I estimated that the Islander was not more than a mile ahead of us, and another hour would wipe out all the difference.
"This wind is good for us in one way, and bad in another," said Captain Cayo, shaking his head after a searching gaze to windward.
"You mean that we are likely to have some fog," I added.
"Not only likely to have a fog, but sure of it. It is miles deep to the southward and westward."
"Of course the Islander will be able to keep out of the way in a fog; and we can"t help ourselves," I replied, trying to yield as gracefully as possible to the necessity of giving up our point.
I had hardly uttered the words before the fog swept down upon us. It was very dense, and we could not see a ship"s length ahead of us; at about the same time the wind suddenly subsided. We could see nothing of the Islander, and I had no doubt she had already shifted her course to the north or the south.
"The game is all up, Captain Cayo," I said, very mournfully.
"Up for the present," replied the pilot, as he called through the speaking-tube for the engineer to stop the steamer.
Captain Cayo put his head out of one of the front windows of the pilot-house, and listened attentively for several minutes. I understood that he had used the speaking-tube instead of ringing the gong, so that those on board of the Islander should not hear the sound, as they might, it was now so still.
"Go ahead," continued the pilot through the tube. "She has headed to the northward, and we will see what we can do on the same tack."
The pilot headed the Sylvania to the north. I hoped the wind would breeze up again and carry off the fog; but there was no indication of it. Our sails made so much noise, flapping and pounding against the spars, that I was obliged to order all sail taken in. When we had gone an hour on the present course, the pilot ordered the engineer to stop her, as before. Washburn and Ben Bowman were on the top-gallant forecastle, and they listened with all their might. We all did the same, but we could not catch a sound of any kind. If the Islander had been within a mile of us we could have heard the clang of her screw.
She had either stopped her engine, or gone off on some other course. We went ahead again, headed to the north-west.
"We might keep this up all night, and not find her," said Captain Cayo, disgusted with the situation.
"What had we better do?" I asked.
"We can"t do anything. We can"t fight against the fog. Are you sure the Islander will go to New Orleans if we let her alone?"
"I feel reasonably sure of it," I replied. "Captain Blastblow evidently is not engaged in the conspiracy; and I don"t believe Cornwood could induce him to disregard the instructions of his owner. His course indicates that he intends to go there, only he seems to be determined to keep out of the way of the Sylvania."
"I have no doubt Cornwood and Nick Boomsby want to go to New Orleans,"
added the pilot. "I don"t see why it won"t be just as well to pick them up there as it will be here."
"But they will not allow themselves to be picked up," I answered. "They will get ash.o.r.e as soon as the Islander reaches New Orleans, whether they get there before or after we do."
"If I wanted to make sure of the rogues, I should get to New Orleans as quickly as I could."
"We should be sure to get there before the Islander," I added.
"So much the better. When you get there, procure a couple of officers, and run back down the river till you meet the other steamer. Throw your officers on board of her, and they will then have no chance to escape.
If we wait here all night, the Islander will make the best of her way to her destination, while we are waiting for the fog to clear off, and of course the rogues will put themselves out of sight," said Captain Cayo.
"I think it is the surer way to run for New Orleans. I don"t know that we need any officers," I replied. "We can run into the Mississippi, find some place of concealment, and pounce on the Islander when they least suspect our presence."
"I like that plan still better," replied the pilot.
We agreed upon this course, and the Sylvania was headed for the South-east Pa.s.s of the Mississippi. We gave her full speed, and on Tuesday afternoon we were off the pa.s.s. It was a dull pa.s.sage. We took a pilot, and as we had no difficulty in crossing the bar, we were soon in the river. The whole region was swamps and lagoons, about as uninteresting as we could expect to find.