re got aloft, and all the signs of greatly increased activity
on board her at once became manifest. It now also became apparent that
some means had been resorted to for the purpose of keeping her broadside
presented to us and her hull interposed between us and the pirate
vessel, and that these means had now been abandoned as of no further
avail; for within the next ten minutes she swung stem-on to us, and we
saw that there was indeed another craft alongside her--a slashing big
topsail schooner, immensely beamy, with all her canvas clewed up and
furled, and her decks cumbered with bales and packages of all sizes and
descriptions, which were being hoisted out of the big ship's hold and
lowered over the side with feverish activity. As the two craft swung
round, revealing the presence of the second vessel, our lads gave a
cheer of delight and exultation, and applied themselves with such fierce
energy to the toil of working the heavy sweeps that they churned the
glassy surface of the ocean into a long double row of miniature
whirlpools, that went swirling and frothing away from the blades of the
sweeps into the wake of the schooner, to the distance of a full quarter
of a mile.

Fortunately, however, they were not compelled to toil very long at this
exhausting labour; for when we had progressed about a mile a few
catspaws came stealing along the surface of the water from the westward,
while a dark line gradually extended along the western horizon and
advanced steadily in our direction, the catspaws meanwhile multiplying
and spreading until, within a quarter of an hour of their first
appearance, the sails of the strange ship were wrinkling and flapping to
quite a pleasant little breeze. The moment that this happened the
pirate schooner cast off and made sail with the rapidity and precision
of a man-o'-war, thus demonstrating that she was manned by an
exceptionally strong and efficient crew. As soon as she was clear of
the ship she was brought to the wind, under an enormous spread of
exquisitely cut canvas, and away she went, close-hauled on the port
tack, heading to the northward at a pace which made us gape with
astonishment; while the ship, with squared yards, gathered stern-way and
first fell broadside-on to us, then gradually paid off until she was
before the wind, when down she came driving toward us, yawing so broadly
to port and starboard that it was easy to see she had nobody at her
helm, which seemed to point pret