In all matters connected with duty, Master Lovel, in spite of the reiterated remarks of his Chief, constantly maintained toward the latter the tone and manner of a subordinate to his superior. The Captain, seeing that the old sailor could not be turned from this, ended by paying no attention to it, and left him free to speak as he thought proper. "By the way, Captain," the Lieutenant continued, with some hesitation, "we are drawing near the gut; do you intend to pass through it?" "I do." "But we shall be sunk." "Not such fools." "Hum! I do not see how we shall escape it." "You will see; besides, must we not go and pick up our boat, which has not yet returned?" "That is true; I did not think of it." "Well, you see; and our passengers?" "I have not seen them yet this morning." "They will soon come on deck." "A ship in sight," the watch shouted. "That is what I was waiting for," said the Captain. "To tack?" "On the contrary, to pass without a shot in front of the fort that commands the entrance of the bay." "I do not understand." "All right; you soon will." And speaking to the look-out man, he said-- "In what direction is that ship?" "To starboard, to windward of us; it is coming out of a creek, in which it was hidden, and steering straight down on the brig." "Very good," the Captain answered; then, turning to Lovel, he continued: "This ship is chasing us; we shall, by constant short tacks, pass the fort and the battery which crosses fire with it. The Mexicans, who are watching us, feeling convinced that we cannot escape their cruiser, will not take the trouble to fire at us, but let us pass through without offering any obstacle." And, leaving his lieutenant astounded at this singular line of argument, which he did not at all comprehend, the Captain went on the quarterdeck, and leaning over the gangway, began carefully watching the movements of the ship signalled by the lookout. An hour passed thus, without producing any change in the respective position of the two ships; but the brig, which had no intention of getting too far away from the cruiser, did not carry half the sail it could.