“Ease off the jib-sheet!” repeated the mate, to assure the master that his order was understood; and it was promptly obeyed. “Now ease off the fore-sheets!” continued the captain. Frinks could see from the course of the schooner what was required; and if he had sworn allegiance to the present commander of the craft, he could not have discharged his duty more promptly and faithfully. “Send a couple of hands aft!” called the captain; and the mate came himself with one of the hands. “Ease off the main-sheet!” After the change in the course, the Maud took the wind on the starboard quarter, and behaved much better than before, though she still pitched and rolled violently in the heavy sea. With two reefs in her principal sails, and with the stormy sea, her progress through the water was anything but rapid. The mate had gone forward, and he was now talking with the two sailors on the forecastle, which was no longer washed by the head sea. “Flix, you are not much of a sailor, I dare say,” said Captain Ringgold, calling the Milesian to him. “Not a bit of it, sir; I don’t know the fore to’ gallant bobstay from main top-mast hatchway,” replied Felix. “Then your education has been neglected. I want you to go forward and ascertain what the mate and the hands are talking about; for they may be hatching up treason, and it is well to be on the lookout, though I don’t think the mate means mischief,” continued the captain. “It don’t take much of a sailor to do the like o’ that,” replied Felix, as he started to go forward, clinging to the rail to enable him to keep on his feet. “Do it in a mild and gentlemanly way, and don’t let the mate understand that you are listening to them,” added the captain. Felix sauntered as leisurely forward as the motion of the schooner would permit, keeping his gaze fixed on the shore, which was Rockaway Beach, distant about two miles. He took a seat on the windlass, where he could hear all that was said, if anything was said, and continued to gaze at whatever was to be seen. Of course his presence prevented the mate and the men from hatching up any treason; and this was the principal object of the new commander in sending him there. “I don’t know where you are going, Captain Ringgold; but it is all right, wherever you go,” said Louis, who was clinging to the after part of the cabin skylight for support. “We are bound to the Great Kills, which is the bay from which we sailed this forenoon,” replied the captain. “That is just about twenty miles from where we are. The Maud is not making more than six knots an hour, and we can’t make the Kills till after eight o’clock. It will be low tide then and very dark in this weather; and I am not a pilot in the inside waters. It is rather unfortunate; but there is no help for it. We may have to stay there all night; and Uncle Moses will have fits over your absence.”