ns when he runs, walks when he walks, gets out of the way when he
pursues him, stops when he stops, and finishes by keeping at his heels
in spite of him. That is how I have maneuvered with the frigate. That is
not all; my correspondent also said to me: 'You will follow the frigate
until you are joined by a brigantine; then you will remain just behind
her; it may be that this brigantine will send you a passenger (this
passenger I now see was yourself); then you will take him and set sail
at once for France without troubling yourself about either the
brigantine or the frigate; if not, the brigantine will send you other
orders, and you will execute them.' I know only the will of my
shipowners; I have followed the frigate from Fort Royal. This morning
the brigantine joined me, just now I fished you out of the water; now I
set sail for France."

"The duke will not come on board, then?" asked Croustillac.

"The duke? what duke? I know no other duke than my shipowner or his
correspondent, which is all the same as--ah! look there! there goes the
frigate, giving tremendous chase to the little ship."

"Will you abandon the Chameleon thus?" cried Croustillac. "If the
frigate overhauls her will you not go to her aid?"

"Not I, by the Lord, although I have a dozen little guns which can say
their word as well as others, and the twenty-four good fellows who form
my crew are a match for the marines of the king--but that is not the
point. I know only the orders of my shipowners. Ah, now the brigantine
cuts out some work for the frigate," said Daniel.

CHAPTER XXXV.

THE RETURN.

The Thunderer pursued the Chameleon furiously. Whether from calculation,
or from an enforced slackening in her course, several times the
brigantine seemed on the point of being overtaken by the frigate; but
then, taking a turn better suited to her construction, she regained the
advantage she had lost.

Suddenly, by a brisk evolution, the brigantine tacked about, came
straight toward the Unicorn, and in a few minutes came within reach of
the voice.

One may judge of the joy of the adventurer when on the deck of the
Chameleon, which passed astern of the three-master, he saw Blue Beard
leaning on the arm of Monmouth, and heard the young woman cry to him in
a voice full of emotion: "Adieu, our savior--adieu--may Heaven protect
you! We will never forget you!"

"Adieu, our best friend," said Monmouth. "Adieu, brave and worthy
chevalier!"

And th