The Argosy, Vol. XXIV, No. 3 — page 187: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

THE MUTINY ON THE FLYING CLOUD. 571 strate the soundness of that opinion, ‘‘ carrying on’’ sail to such a daring extent that even Captain Blake would have remonstrated had he been with them. The craft, however, was stanch, the spars and rigging sound, the canvas new ; and the youthful mariners, though daring, were by no means reckless. The weather also was settled and the wind steady, if somewhat fresh. All, therefore, went well with them, and so thoroughly did the cutter answer the expectations of her crew, that at dawn on the Wednesday morning—the second day out—the high land of Island Harbor was distinctly visible from the deck, showing just above the horizon like a sharply defined purplish gray blot upon the sky to windward. | At the same time the adventurers also made out something else, to wit, a fleet of five sail of small craft dead to windward—in fact, immediately between the cutter and the island. At first they were considerably puzzled to determine the character of these small craft, which were steering due west; but at length, as they closed and became more distinctly visible, Ned was enabled to solve the riddle. The fleet was none other than she boats belonging to the Flying Cloud / CHAPTER XLjI.—HOMEWARD BOUND. NED conjectured that the hasty abandonment of Island Harbor, indicated by the appearance of the boats at sea, arose either from a fear that Ned might give such information of the existence of the place as would lead to the speedy capture of its occupants, or a determination on the part of the dis- comfited pirates to seek at sea a substitute for the noble ship of which they had been so cleverly deprived. Whichever-—if either—of these surmises might have been the correct one, a very lively interest in the movements of the Petrel was speedily manifested by the occupants of the boats, makeshift signals of distress being promptly displayed on each craft. Ned paid attention to these to the extent of closing with the fleet sufficiently to enable him to establish their identity beyond question, after which he calmly made arrangements to avoid them. When this was seen, the boats hauled up in pursuit, but they might as well have attempted to pursue the sea birds' which hovered in their wake. Ned so maneuvered as to pass the nearest boat well out of rifle shot, at the same time steering such a course as would be unlikely to excite any suspicion that he was bound to Island Harbor ; and though the pursuit was maintained for nearly an hour, its hopelessness had by that time become so apparent that the boats again bore up and were soon afterward lost to view in the western board. For the information of those interested in the ultimate fate of the pirates, it may be as well to mention here that they were from that time never more seen or heard of. : : It was just noon that day when the Petrel entered the Narrows; and all fear of discovery by the pirates being now at an end, Ned took her directly COMmiclboOoks.€O