Wilton was making for the point below the cove, but his calculations were made without judgment or discretion.

If he reached the land, his party would be obliged to walk a mile in order to get round the cove, on a narrow strip of marsh, where they might be intercepted.

But the fatal defect in his plan of operations was a failure to consider the depth of water between the ship and the point.
The flow of the tide from the cove, while it kept a clear channel through the entrance, had formed a bar off the tongue of land on the seaward side of it, which was bare at half tide, and was now just covered.

Wilton was pulling for this bar, with all the strength of his crew.
Shuffles was prompt to observe the mistake of his late crony, and just as prompt to profit by it.

The first cutter was gaining rapidly on the chase; but Shuffles, as she reached the border of the main channel, ordered his coxswain to keep the boat's head towards the entrance of the cove.
"We shall never catch them on this tack," said the coxswain of the cutter, who knew nothing about the bar.
"I think we shall," replied the third lieutenant, confidently.
"We are not going towards the point." "That's very true, and the professors' barge will not go much farther in that direction.