Get her on the other tack, lads, but be as quiet as you can about it.

There's no saying how close the cutter may be to us." The great sails were lowered, as the boat's head paid off to the east.
The yards were shifted to the other sides of the masts, and the sails hoisted again, and the lugger began to retrace her way back along the coast.
"It's just a chance, now," the captain said to James, who was standing close by him, "whether the commander of the cutter guesses, or not, that we shall change our course.

He will know we are likely enough to do it." "What should you do if you were in his place ?" James said.
"I should run straight out to sea, and lay to, eight or ten miles off.
He would be able to make us out then at daylight, whichever course we take; whereas, by trying to follow in the dark, he would run the chance of missing us altogether.

I wish the wind would get up a bit.

We are not moving through the water more than three knots an hour, and it's dying away.