8/11 "I make her out, and she is a small sloop. We shall not have much of a brush." Under the vigorous pulling of eight stalwart men, the cutter leaped forward at a speed that would have won an ordinary boat race, and in ten minutes more, the sloop could be distinctly made out, the cutter running across her bow. She was close-hauled, with the wind from the south-west, and very little of it. On board of her were at least ten men, as the quartermaster counted them, and there might have been more in her cuddy under the hail-deck forward. "What sloop is that ?" "The Magnolia, bound to Appalachicola," replied the spokesman of the craft. |