There is no doubt that the cutters have a pull
close-hauled. I fancy with this wind the schooners will be out of
it; though if it had been a reach the whole way, they would have
had a good chance.
"Four minutes are gone."
He was holding his watch in his hand, and after a short pause
called out, "Five seconds gone."
The Osprey had a good position at present; though, with the wind
aft, this was of comparatively little consequence. She was nearly
in a line with the mark boat nearest to the shore, and some hundred
and fifty yards from it.
"Haul in the main sheet," Hawkins said quietly, and the men
stationed there hauled on the rope until he said, "That will do, we
must not go too fast."
He went on, turning to Frank (who had just called out, "Twenty
seconds gone"):
"I think that we shall about do."
The latter nodded.
"A bit more, lads," the skipper said ten seconds later. "That will
do."
"Fifteen seconds more," Frank said presently.
"Slack away the sheet, slack it away handsomely. Up foresail, that
is it," shouted the skipper.
As the boom ran out, and the foresail went up, the Osprey glided on
with accelerated speed, and the end of the bowsprit was but a few
yards from the starting line when the gun fired.
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