As soon as the Sylvania was on her new course, I left the pilot-house, where I had gone at nine, and turned in. I had slept all the night before, and the laughter of the younger of the passengers on the hurricane-deck above me did not permit me to sleep. But I heard Colonel Shepard call his daughter away at ten, and then I went to sleep. I could not tell how long I had slept when the stopping of the steamer waked me. "What schooner is that?" shouted Washburn, from the pilot-house. I was on deck soon enough to hear the reply. "The Violet, New Orleans to New York," came from the vessel hailed. "Did you see a small steamer about the size of this one?" asked Washburn. "We passed one about three hours ago. She looked enough like you to be the same vessel." "Thanks," shouted Washburn, as he rang the bell to go ahead. I looked at my watch, and found it wanted but a few minutes of twelve, and I went into the pilot-house. CHAPTER XI. DIFFICULT NAVIGATION. "Three hours ago, which means that the Islander is about thirty miles ahead of us," said Washburn, when I went into the pilot-house. "She must have put in somewhere, and it was not at Mosquito Inlet," I replied. "I don't quite understand it." "I think I do," added Washburn, as he called in Buck Lingley and gave him the wheel. He led the way to the chart on the shelf, upon which a light was cast from the binnacle. He pointed out Matanzas Inlet, at the southern point of Anastasia Island, and fifteen miles south of St. Augustine. "She went into that inlet," said Washburn. "But there isn't water enough in it to float the Islander," I replied. "I think she did not go in far, if at all. The wind was off shore yesterday, and under the lee of the land there is no sea of any consequence, except what is caused by the rollers. If the captain of that schooner has given the time correctly, it shows that the Islander went to sea about an hour and half before we did. That will put her thirty miles ahead of us," Washburn explained; and his reasoning seemed to be correct. "The Islander put in somewhere, or she would have been two hundred and forty miles farther on the way to Key West than we are," I added. "She did not stand off to sea, as there was not the least need of that, for the wind has been off shore since we came out of the St. Johns." "I am confident we are right. Now the question is, shall we chase her?" asked Washburn. "She is thirty miles ahead of us; and we have nearly three hundred and fifty miles to make to reach Key West." "There is no wind to-night to help us, and it will take as much coal to get the two extra knots out of the Sylvania as it will to make the ordinary and regular ten knots an hour, to say nothing of the wear and tear of boiler and machinery," I replied, musing. "But the Islander will get to Key West before Cornwood does, if she puts in there, and we may miss her altogether."