Chapter 7

"Walk in the light! so shalt thou know
That fellowship of love,
His spirit only can bestow
Who reigns in light above.
Walk in the light! and sin, abhorr'd,
Shall ne'er defile again;
The blood of Jesus Christ, the Lord,
Shall cleanse from every stain."

Bernard Barton.

About an hour after the Sea Lion, of Oyster Pond, had let go her anchor in
Gardiner's Bay, a coasting sloop approached her, coming from the westward.
There are two passages by which vessels enter or quit Long Island Sound,
at its eastern termination. The main channel is between Plum and Fisher's
Islands, and, from the rapidity of its currents, is known by the name of
the Race. The other passage is much less frequented, being out of the
direct line of sailing for craft that keep mid-sound. It lies to the
southward of the Race, between Plum Island and Oyster Pond Point, and is
called by the Anglo-Saxon appellation of Plum Gut. The coaster just
mentioned had come through this latter passage; and it was the impression
of those who saw her from the schooner, that she was bound up into
Peconic, or the waters of Sag Harbour. Instead of luffing up into either
of the channels that would have carried her into these places, however,
she kept off, crossing Gardiner's Bay, until she got within hail of the
schooner. The wind being quite light, there was time for the following
short dialogue to take place between the skipper of this coaster and
Roswell Gardiner, before the sloop had passed beyond the reach of the
voice.

"Is that the Sea Lion, of Oyster Pond?" demanded the skipper, boldly.

"Ay, ay," answered Roswell Gardiner, in the sententious manner of a
seaman.

"Is there one Watson, of Martha's Vineyard, shipped in that craft?"

"He was aboard here for a week, but left us suddenly. As he did not sign
articles, I cannot say that he run."

"He changed his mind, then," returned the other, as one expresses a slight
degree of surprise at hearing that which was new to him. "Watson is apt to
whiffle about, though a prime fellow, if you can once fasten to him, and
get him into blue water. Does your schooner go out to-morrow, Captain
Gar'ner?"

"Not till next day, I think," said Roswell Gardiner, with the frankness of
his nature, utterly free from the slightest suspicion that he was
communicating with one in the interests of rivals. "My mates have not yet
joined me, and I am short of my complement by two good hands. Had that
fellow Watson stuck by me, I would have given him a look at water that no
lead ever sounded."

"Ay, ay; he's a whiffler, but a good man on a sea-elephant. Then you think
you'll sail