he shortened sail in a most determined and workmanlike
manner, threw open all his ports, and, slightly shifting his helm, made
as though he would slip in between the _Dolphin_ and the Indiaman.
Captain Winter, however, would not have it so; as the Frenchman luffed,
the _Dolphin_ edged away, until both vessels were heading well in for
the West Bay, athwart the Indiaman's hawse, and running upon lines so
rapidly converging that, within ten minutes of the declaration of the
Frenchman's intentions, the brig and the schooner were within biscuit-
toss of each other. The brig mounted six guns of a side against the
_Dolphin's_ five; but this disparity was altogether too trifling a
matter for our skipper to take any notice of, and accordingly, when the
two vessels had neared each other to within about twenty fathoms, the
Frenchmen showing signs of an intention to run the schooner on board,
Captain Winter poured in his starboard broadside, and at the same time
edged away just sufficiently to keep a few fathoms of water between
himself and the brig. The broadside was promptly returned, and in
another minute the two vessels were at it, hammer and tongs, yard-arm to
yard-arm, and running almost dead away before the wind.

Meanwhile, having sent a hand aloft to take a look round, and having
thus ascertained that there was nothing else in sight to interfere with
us, I came to the conclusion that the Indiaman might very well take care
of herself for half an hour or so; and, accordingly, we in the lugger at
once bore up to support the schooner. Up to the time of encountering
the Frenchman we had been sailing about a quarter of a mile to leeward
of the Indiaman, while the _Dolphin_ had been jogging along about the
same distance to windward of the big ship; our positions, therefore,
were such that we in the lugger had only to put up our helm a couple of
spokes or so to enable us to converge upon the two combatants, which we
did. By the time of our arrival upon the scene the fight was raging so
hotly, and both craft were so completely enveloped in smoke that neither
party was aware of our presence; I therefore steered so as to just shave
clear of the _Dolphin's_ stern; and, having done so, our men
deliberately fired each of the four long sixes in our larboard broadside
slap into the stern of the brig, raking her fore-and-aft. Then, passing
out clear of her, we tacked the instant that we had room, and, passing
close under her stern agai