The result was apparent at once.

The gap between them became a gulf.

The flag flying so proudly on the topmast of the sloop was gone in the dusk.

Her spars and sails faded away, she showed only a dim, low hulk on the water from which her guns flashed.
The schooner tacked again.

A new bank of blackness poured down over the sea, and the sloop was gone.
"It was a trap and we sailed straight into it," exclaimed the captain, "but it couldn't hold us.