In another minute the stock of the kedge showed above the bows, when the catfalls being stretched along the deck, and laid hold of by Moggridge, the rest of the crew tacking on after him, the flukes were run up to the cat-head to a rhythmical chorus in which all hands joined, the men pulling with a will as they yelled out the refrain-- "Yankee John, storm along! Hooray, hooray, my hearties! Pull away, heave away, Hooray, hooray, my hearties! Going to leave Grenada!" The clew-garnet blocks now rattled as the main-sheet was hauled aft, when, the broad sail filling, the _Josephine_ paid off before the wind; and shortly afterwards she was making her way to leeward towards Saint Vincent, passing almost within a stone's throw of Fort Saint George, as she cleared the northern point of the harbour and got out to sea. The jib and flying-jib were now hoisted as well as the topgallant-sails and spanker, to get as much of the breeze as we could while it lasted, so that the vessel began to make fair progress through the water; and the hands under the superintendence of the two mates were then set to work coiling down ropes and getting in the slack of the sheets as well as making things ship-shape amidships, where the deck was still littered with a good deal of cargo that had not yet been properly stowed. I was all this time standing by the side of Captain Miles on the poop, alternately looking at the men jumping about the rigging like monkeys and at the fast-receding shore, which, as soon as the sun set, became dimmer and dimmer in the distance, until it was at length finally shut out from my gaze by a wall of mist. "Fo'c's'le ahoy, there!" sang out Captain Miles presently, when it began to grow dusk. "Aye, aye, sir!" responded the voice of Moggridge, the boatswain, from forward. "Keep a good look out, my man, ahead, or we may be running down some of those coasting craft inward bound." "Aye, aye, sir, I'm on the watch myself," sang out Moggridge; but hardly had he given this answer than, all at once, he cried out suddenly in a louder tone, "Hard a-port, hard a-port! There's something standing across our bows." The man at the wheel immediately put the helm up, letting the head of the vessel fall off from the wind; but, at the same instant, there came a sudden crash ahead, followed by a loud yell. "Gracious heavens!" cried out Captain Miles, rushing forwards to the forecastle, where several of the hands had also hurried on hearing the cry of the boatswain--I going after the captain in my turn to see what was the matter, dreading some fearful disaster. There were several short and quick exclamations, amidst which I saw, in the dim light, Moggridge in the act of heaving a rope overboard towards some dark object in the water. "Hooray, he's got it and has clutched hold!" I then heard somebody say. "The line has fallen just over his shoulders, and he has got the bight of it." "Haul him in gently!" cried the captain. "Pull easy--so!"