"D'ye t'ink they'll see us, Chimmie?" asked the Bowery boy, anxiously, for it had been impossible to conceal the object of the trip from the crew.
"I don't know. I hope they do," answered the youngster, who had often been on voyages with his father, and knew the sailing-qualities of the _Hecuba_. "This breeze is going to freshen, and we're nearly out of the bay. Father will show those revenue-steamers a thing or two."
"If dey catch us, will we be hung to de yard-arm, way dey say in de books?" inquired the street arab, whose first voyage it was.
"Perhaps," cheerfully answered Jimmie; and with a son's unbounded faith in his father, he continued: "But they won't catch us. The worst is that they may get close enough to see who we are, and then there will be trouble when we come back."
"Den yer old man had better be a pirate. Dat's de way dey allus does--get into trouble in dere own country, and den go piratin' in de Spanish main after gold gallons," suggested the ex-newsboy.
Jimmie said, in an apologetic tone, as if it were a blight on the character of his parent, that the skipper, as he called his father, in imitation of the sailors, wasn't exactly cut out for a pirate. He wasn't blood-thirsty enough, and mentioned several other drawbacks, much to the credit of Captain Wade. And then there was an intense discussion as to what they would do if they were captain and mate of the schooner _Hecuba_. How they would get a beautiful coral island with only savages on it, whom they would first kill, and then utilize the island for burying treasure, imprisoning captive maidens of ancient Castilian lineage, and holding rich grandees for ransom. The blood-thirsty little wretches had just determined that I should be their first prisoner, and was to be held for a ransom that would have bankrupted half the arms factories of Connecticut, when the voice of the Captain could be heard in sharp command:
"Ease her off and lay low. Cover up the binnacle light!" And in the darkness we could see the point of the land we were hugging over the port bow.
"They see us. They see us!" excitedly said Jimmie.
I looked, and felt a sick feeling in my heart as I saw the lights of the revenue-steamer slowly moving toward us.