man at the wheel: "Starboard!"

"Starboard it is."

"Steer South South East."

"Ay, ay, sir." And the ship's course was thus altered two points.

This order lowered Dodd fifty per cent in Mr. Sharpe's estimation. He
held his tongue as long as he could: but at last his surprise and
dissatisfaction burst out of him, "Won't that bring him out on us?"

"Very likely, sir," replied Dodd.

"Begging your pardon, captain, would it not be wiser to keep our course,
and show the blackguard we don't fear him?"

"When we _do_? Sharpe, he has made up his mind an hour ago whether to
lie still, or bite; my changing my course two points won't change his
mind; but it may make him declare it; and _I_ must know what he does
intend, before I run the ship into the narrows ahead."

"Oh, I see," said Sharpe, half convinced.

The alteration in the _Agra's_ course produced no movement on the part of
the mysterious schooner. She lay to under the land still, and with only
a few hands on deck, while the _Agra_ edged away from her and entered the
straits between Long Island and Point Leat, leaving the schooner about
two miles and a half distant to the N.W.