return.

It took them two more tides before they were off Sheerness. The
wind was now more favourable, and having increased somewhat in
strength, the Susan made her way briskly along, heeling over till
the water ran along her scuppers. There was plenty to see now, for
there were many fishing boats at work, some belonging, as Master
Chambers told them, to the Medway, others to the little village of
Leigh, whose church they saw at the top of the hill to their right.
They met, too, several large craft coming down the river, and passed
more than one, for the Susan was a fast boat.

"They would beat us," the skipper said when the boys expressed
their surprise at their passing such large vessels, "if the wind
were stronger or the water rough. We are doing our best, and if the
wind rises I shall have to take in sail; while they could carry all
theirs if it blew twice as hard. Then in a sea, weight and power
tell; a wave that would knock the way almost out of us would hardly
affect them at all."

So well did the Susan go along, that before the tide was much more
than half done they passed the little village of Gravesend on their
left, with the strong fort of Tilbury on the opposite shore, with
its guns pointing on the river, and ready to give a good account
of any Spaniard who should venture to sail up the Thames. Then at
the end of the next reach the hamlet of Grays was passed on the
right; a mile further Greenhithe on the left. Tide was getting
slack now, but the Susan managed to get as far as Purfleet, and
then dropped her anchor.