Page:The crater; or, Vulcan's peak.djvu/414

 174 THE CRATER; the Needle, and she found the coast clear. As yet, no signs of invaders were to be seen ; and the Martha being within a very convenient distance to the eastward, a sig nal was made to Captain Betts to stand over towards the Peak, and have a search in that quarter. Should the stran gers take it into their heads to beat up under the cliffs again, and thence stretch across to the group, it would bring them in with the land to windward of the observing squadron, and give them an advantage the governor was very far from wishing them to obtain. The rest of the craft came down to the place of rendezvous, and kept standing off and on, under short sail, close in with the rocks, so as to keep in the smoothest of the water. Such was the state of things when the sun went down in the ocean. All night the little fleet of the colonists remained in the same uncertainty as to the movements of their suspicious visitors. About twelve the Martha came round the Needle, and reported the coast clear to the southward. She had been quite to the cove, and had communicated with the shore. Nothing had been seen of the ship and her con sorts since the governor left, nor had any further tidings been brought up from to leeward, since the arrival of Bige- low. On receiving this information, the governor ordered his command to run off, in diverging lines, for seven leagues each, and then to wait for day. This was accord ingly done; the Anne and Martha, as a matter of course, outstripping the others. At the usual hour day re-appeared, when the look-out aloft, on board the Anne, reported the Martha about two leagues to the northward, the Nesha- mony about as far to the southward, though a league far ther to windward. The other craft were known to be to the northward of the Martha, but could not be seen. As for the Neshamony, she was coming down with a flowing sheet, to speak the governor. The sun had fairly risen, when the Neshamony came down on the Anne s weather-quarter, both craft then standing to the northward. The Neshamony had seen nothing. The governor now directed her commander to stand directly down towards Rancocus Island. If she saw nothing, she was to go in and land, in order to get the news from the