e getting up the anchor when their
attention was arrested by the shouts and gesticulations of a man on
the beach.

"Send a boat in and see what he wants," said the manager; and ten
minutes later Mike Connell was on board, telling his story to a highly
interested group of listeners.

Within an hour after receiving her new passenger, the _Broncho_, under
full head of steam, was several miles to the northward of Laughing
Fish, and well out to sea, in hot pursuit of a small schooner. The
latter was slipping easily along before the fresh morning breeze that
had recently set in after a night of calm. The water rippled merrily
past her flashing sides, and she was making some six miles an hour. At
the same time the _Broncho_, pouring forth great clouds of soft-coal
smoke and heaping the smooth water into double white-crested billows
as she rushed through it, was doing two miles to her one, and would
soon overtake her.

"Whatever can that bloomin' teakettle want of us?" growled the captain
of the schooner as he blinked with half-closed eyes at his pursuer.
"She ain't no revenue boat, as I can see. Tom, h'ist our ensign as a
hint for 'em to keep away."

The sailor obeyed, and a minute later ran the crimson flag of Great
Britain to the main peak, where it streamed out bravely in the
freshening breeze.

"Got a flag aboard this boat, Captain Spillins?" asked Major Arkell as
he watched the schooner from the _Broncho's_ pilot-house.

"Yes, sir, two of 'em."

"Good. We'll see that fellow and go him one better. Set 'em both."

In consequence of this order the Stars and Stripes were quickly
snapping defiantly from both the forward and after jack-staffs of the
on-rushing tug.

"Sheer off, blast you, or you'll run us down!" bellowed the captain of
the schooner as the tug ranged close abreast.

"Is that your man?" asked the manager, of Mike Connell.

"He is. Sure I'd know him from a thousand by me own frescos on his
purty face."

"Have you a man named Richard Peveril aboard your craft?" demanded
Captain Spillins.

"None of your d----d business."

"Run him down!" ordered Major Arkell, sternly, and the words had
hardly left his mouth before the two vessels came together with a
crash.

CHAPTER XXV

A SEA-FIGHT ON LAKE SUPERIOR

As no other schooner was in sight, and as this one was standing off
the coast when discovered, the _Broncho_ people had from the very
first believed her to be the one they wanted. Her ho