Runnells is a dilatory fellow and has gone no farther than to fill them with water up to the thwarts, to test their stanchness." Here the Major allowed himself to smile.
"But Runnells, though dilatory, will launch them after dusk, while the tide suits." "The tide makes until five o'clock." "Until five-twenty, to be correct.

Before seven o'clock they will be launched." "You play a bold game, dear friend.

Suppose, now, that Smellie _had_ kept the cutter cruising off the coast ?" The Major smiled again, this time with _finesse_.

"The man is ambitious, I tell you.

By employing the cutter he might indeed have intercepted the cargo.