are not beyond reach
of her vision before the dawn of day, we shall be overhauled."

Captain Parson knew that some evil consequences might result from being
overhauled by the _Sea-Wing,_ and consequently every stitch of canvas
was spread and the brig sped away with a good stiff breeze. It was a
long and anxious night; master and crew were all on deck. No one slept.
The coming dawn would tell the story. If the frigate were in sight,
then they might expect the very worst; even the ship might be captured
and borne away as a prize and the entire crew enslaved.

Dawn came at last. Each anxious heart welcomed and yet dreaded to see
the new day. Sailors and officers swept the sea as it grew lighter, and,
to their dread, just as the sun rose over the glossy surface of the sea,
a snowy speck appeared far off to the westward.

The lookout at the mast-head first called their attention to it, and as
it drew nearer and nearer the tall handsome gunner went aloft with a
glass to see if he could recognize it. In a few moments he came back
and said:

"It is the frigate, sir."

That she was in full chase, there could not be a doubt. Captain Parson
had little hope of escaping; but he put the _Dover_ on her best sailing
point and scudded away before the wind with every stitch of canvas they
could carry.

"Oh, golly! I hope dey won't mistake--dey won't mistake dis chile for a
Britisher!" groaned Job the cook, who was trembling from head to foot,
and whose black skin was almost pale.

The five deserters were pale but calm. They seemed to read their fate
and bore it like men. A flogging was the very least they could expect;
but the chances were that every one would hang. The frigate was the
swifter sailor and overhauled them so rapidly, that, in two hours and a
half, she was within a mile of the brig.

Suddenly a wreath of white smoke curled up from the forecastle, and a
moment later a ball came skipping over the water under their larboard
deck, while the boom of a cannon sounded over the sea. As the fine spray
clipped from the crested waves by the shot, flew over the deck, Mr.
Brown said:

"Captain, it's no use, she will be near enough to sink us in ten
minutes."

"Heave to, Brown. Oh! I wish I had arms and a crew!"

"Captain," interposed the tall, handsome gunner, "I--I know their skill
and metal. If you had a gun--a single gun of proper calibre, I could
sink her. I am called the best shot in the English navy."

"We have on