At
this time the top-gallant sails of the Foam might be discovered from the
deck, resembling a boat clinging to the watery horizon. As he had fully
made up his mind to run into port in preference to being overhauled, the
master had kept so near the land, with an intention of profiting by his
position, in the event of any change favouring his pursuers; but he now
believed that at sunset he should be safe in finally shaping his course
for America.
"There must be double-fortified eyes aboard that fellow to see what we are
about at this distance, when the night is once shut in," he said to Mr.
Leach, who seconded all his orders with obedient zeal, "and we will watch
our moment to slip out fairly into the great prairie, and then we shall
discover who best knows the trail! You'll be for trotting off to the
prairies, Sir George, as soon as we get in, and for trying your hand at
the buffaloes, like all the rest of them. Ten years since, if an
Englishman came to look at us, he was afraid of being scalped in Broadway
and now he is never satisfied unless he is astraddle of the Rocky
Mountains in the first fortnight. I take over lots of cockney-hunters
every summer, who just get a shot at a grizzly bear or two, or at an
antelope, and come back in time for the opening of Drury Lane.
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