I want you to tell me when they are directly
ahead of us," ordered the skipper.

"Ay, ay, sir!" shouted I, giving the stereotyped answer to every order
issued on board ship; and the next instant all was bustle and activity
below me, as the helm was put up and preparations were made to set our
studding-sails on the starboard side. As I glanced down on deck I saw
the captain step to the binnacle, apparently watching the motion of the
compass-card as the ship paid off, so I at once directed my gaze toward
the strangers, and the moment they were brought in line with the fore-
royal-mast-head I sang out:

"Steady as you go, sir; the strangers are now dead ahead of us!"

"Thank you, Mr Grenvile; you may come down now," replied the captain.
And as I swung off the yard I saw the skipper and the first lieutenant,
with their heads together over the binnacle, talking earnestly.

Meanwhile the wind, scant as it was, seemed inclined to become more
scanty still, until at length, by "six bells"--that is to say, seven
o'clock--our courses were drooping motionless from the yards, the
maintop-sail was wrinkling ominously, with an occasional flap to the
mast as the brig hove lazily over the long low undulations of the
swell--and only the light upper canvas continued to draw, the ship's
speed having declined to a bare two knots, which gave us little more
than mere steerage way. And loud was the grumbling, fore and aft, when,
a little later, as the hands were piped to breakfast, the breeze died
away altogether, and the _Shark_, being no longer under the control of
her helm, proceeded to "box the compass"--that is to say, to swing first
this way and then that, with the send of the swell. Our only
consolation was that the strangers to leeward were in the same awkward
fix as ourselves; for if we had no wind wherewith to pursue them, they,
in their turn, had none wherewith to run away from us.

Nobody dawdled very long over breakfast that morning; for, in the first
place, the heat below was simply unbearable, and, in the next, we were
all far too anxious to allow of our remaining in our berths while we
knew that every conceivable expedient would be adopted by the captain to
shorten the distance between us and the chase. It was my watch below
from eight o'clock until noon, and I was consequently off duty; but
although I had been on deck for eight hours of the twelve during the
preceding night, I was much too fidgety to turn in and endeav