Besides, he had gone in tow as long as he intended.

Graines reported the two sails as set.
"Stand by to hoist the jib!" he shouted, deeming it no longer necessary to conceal his movements.
"What are you doing there ?" demanded the officer, who seemed to be in charge of the after part of the steamer; and his tones, with the flood of profanity he poured out, indicated that he was in a violent fit of anger.
"I reckon we won't tow any farther," replied Christy, who was still at the wheel, and the officer yelled loud enough for him to hear at the helm; but French repeated his answer.
"All ready to hoist the jib," Graines reported.
"Cast off the towline!" shouted Christy at the top of his lungs.

"Hoist the jib!" "Towline all clear!" called the engineer a moment later, and the jib went up in a hurry.
The jib filled on the starboard tack, and the West Wind went off to the south-east as Christy put up the helm.

The fog lifted just enough to enable the officer at the stern of the steamer to see the West Wind as she went off on her new course.

No one on the former could have suspected that the latter had changed hands; for French had answered for Captain Sullendine every time a call was made, and his voice was not unlike that of the master of the schooner.
Christy could not understand why the officer who used so many expletives should be dissatisfied, for the Tallahatchie could certainly make better time when no longer encumbered by the towing of the West Wind.