The frigate was desperately near; another raking broadside might take the Holker’s foremast, and then she would be a helpless wreck at the mercy of the breakers. But the smoke hid the Holker from the frigate for an instant, and the valiant Risk held his ship right upon the bar. As a huge surge came athwart the quarter to throw the brig upon the sands, the skipper put the wheel hard up. The ship at once broached to on the crest of a wicked sea and rolled on her beams’ ends. As the keel scraped on the bar a burly seaman grasped the wheel with the captain, and by wonderful dexterity the rudder was put hard over. The next surge saw the Holker right herself before the wind and launch safely in the still water beyond the bar. When the Holker accomplished this daring feat of seamanship, the crew of the Roebuck were so thrilled that they let out a lusty cheer for the Yankee and bore off into the blue water to ride out the gale. Now that the Holker was speeding in smooth water to a safe anchorage, the crew were clearing away the wreckage and admiring the little captain, who had saved them again from the horrors of an English prison. CHAPTER XXIV When the Holker made the inlet at Little Egg Harbor, she came to an anchorage behind one of the low-lying islands. Her only chances for an escape were a high tide and darkness, or a fog that would let her slip out and pass the Roebuck. If a boarding party from the English frigate did not attack him, Captain Risk was preparing his ship for a chance to escape. There was much to keep his crew busy, for he had rigging to overhaul and spars to mend. At the time Roderick Barclugh was boarding the Albatross, the Holker was waiting to escape, and little did he think that he was to run across the privateer. He gladly went to his bunk and indulged in much needed rest. All he knew was that he was to be put ashore on the New Jersey coast near Little Egg Harbor inlet, and then he must make his way to Philadelphia as best he could. He felt that nothing ought to worry him when his mission to New York had been accomplished. Thus far no drawback had occurred. Arnold simply needed close watching and a small bait of gold now and then to keep him working. He had arranged to sell the Holker when she had delivered the flour, so that after the captain and crew were paid the prize money, they could find other adventures. The Albatross was one of those small, armed cruisers used by General Clinton to execute raiding commissions up and down the coast. She was of light enough draft to enter small inlets, travel the sounds and bays, and assist in the guerilla warfare. She was a sloop armed with eight nine-pound carronades, and one twelve-pound swivel. The crew numbered forty men. As the orders given Captain Sutherland were to convey his passenger to a harbor on the Jersey coast, the Albatross was under way very soon, and started tacking into the sou’east gale for the Narrows and Sandy Hook.