'Tis a notion, a rare one; Ben Barker en't the man to bear a grudge, and
I take back them words o' mine--leastways some on 'em.
"Bo'sun, get ready to lower the longboat."
The longboat was lowered, out of sight of the enemy. A kedge anchor,
fastened to a stout hawser, was put on board, and as soon as it was
sufficiently dark to make so comparatively small an object as a boat
invisible to the hostile craft, she put off at right angles to the Good
Intent's previous course, the hawser attached to the kedge being paid out
as the boat drew away. When it had gone about a fifth of a mile from the
vessel the kedge was dropped, and a signal was given by hauling on the
rope.
"Clap on, men!" cried Captain Barker. "Get a good purchase, and none of
your singsong; avast all jabber."
The crew manned the windlass and began with a will to haul on the cable
in dead silence. The vessel was slowly warped ahead. Meanwhile the
longboat was returning; when she reached the side of the Good Intent, a
second kedge was lowered into her, and again she put off, to drop the
anchor two cables' length beyond the first, so that when the ship had
tripped that, the second was ready to be hauled on.
When the Good Intent had been thus warped a mile from her position at
nightfall, Captain Parker ordered the operation to be stopped. To avoid
noise the boat was not hoisted in. No lights were shown, and the sky
being somewhat overcast, the boat's crew found that the ship was
invisible at the distance of a fourth of a cable's length.
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