"Now, Tom, you must finish the job," exclaimed George; "you can reach and throw off the rest of the turns where you sit; the sail is a lug by the feel of it--at all events, here is a yard of some sort lying alongside the mast--and when you have cast off the lashings and are ready to step the mast, say the word, and lay in your oar; then I'll scull the boat, whilst you step the mast and hoist the sail. Hurrah! here comes the breeze, hot and strong; get the canvas on her, and at last we shall be able to enjoy a rest. If those fellows are wise now, they'll 'bout ship at once, and make for the shore, five minutes hence it will be blowing fresh, and, if they don't look out, they'll be blown off the land altogether. Are you ready? Then in oars, step the mast, and sway away upon the halliards." So said, so done; Tom tossed in his oar, seized the mast, and stepped it. The halliards were already bent to the yard--laziness again, the fishermen evidently having been too indolent to cast them adrift, knowing that they would only have to bend them on again when next they wanted to use the sail--and in another minute Tom had the sail mastheaded, the tack lashed down, and the sheet aft in George's hand; whilst the latter, sinking down in the sternsheets with a sigh of ineffable relief, and too tired yet to ship the rudder, steered the boat with the oar which he had used for sculling, whilst Tom was busied in the operation of making sail. The canoe, meanwhile, had crept up to within her own length of the chase, and oaths and exclamations of mutual encouragement were freely mingled with peremptory orders to the fugitives to surrender, and threats of the punishment awaiting them when caught; but no sooner was the sail set than the boat drew rapidly away, and in ten minutes more the canoe, with its occupants still paddling furiously out to sea, was invisible. George confidently expected to be saluted with a parting shower of bullets, but he was agreeably disappointed, owing possibly to the circumstance that in the hurry of pursuit the crew of the canoe had omitted to bring their ammunition with them. For the first four hours of their flight the voyagers were sailing continuously among the group of low islets which George had seen from the top of the hill; but about midnight, as nearly as they could guess, the last rock was passed, and they found themselves in open water.