noon
I had done all I could to secure the tender , and she seemed well able to ride out the gale . The prize , however , I saw was labouring heavily . I watched her anxiously , both on my own account and that of Grampus and the men with him . At noon , just as I was leaving the deck , I heard an exclamation from Rockets , which made me pop my head pretty rapidly up the companion-hatch , and , looking to leeward , I saw my prize , amid a mass of foam , driving away at headlong speed towards the enemy 's shore . To help her was impossible . I was more sorry at the thought of losing Grampus than of anything else . Even should he and his companions escape with their lives , they would , at all events , be made prisoners by the enemy , and I might chance never to meet my old follower again .