rl our topgallant-sail
and haul down our flying-jib as soon as we hauled our wind; moreover
there was a nasty, short jump of a sea on, into which the _Dolphin_
plunged to her knight-heads every time. The weather was, therefore, all
in the frigate's favour, and very soon, to our extreme annoyance, we
discovered that the Frenchman was slowly but surely gaining upon us; for
when the frigate had been in chase about half an hour, she fired another
gun, the shot from which reached within twenty fathoms of us, and it was
capitally aimed, too.

"We must get the topgallant-sail and flying-jib on her again, Mr Bowen,
and shift our small gaff-topsail for the big one. This will never do;
we shall be within range in another half-hour; and then, if that fellow
happens to wing us, we shall be done for!"

"The sticks will never bear it, sir," answered I. "Look at our topmasts
now; they are bending like fishing-rods as it is; and unless we rig the
preventers pretty quickly we shall lose them, in my opinion."

"Then get up your preventers at once, my dear fellow," answered the
skipper; "and be as smart as you please about the job. One thing is
quite certain, and that is that unless we can drive the schooner a
little faster we shall be nabbed!"

"Perhaps, sir," said I, "if we were to keep the schooner away about half
a point she would go along more freely. We are looking a good point
higher than the frigate at present, but we are hugging the wind so
closely that we have no life in us, and are losing as much as we gain."

The skipper looked at the frigate astern, then up at the weather leech
of our own topsail, which was lifting at every plunge of the schooner.

"Perhaps you are right, George," said he. "At all events your
suggestion is worth trying. So, my man," to the helmsman, at the same
time peering into the binnacle, "keep her away to west-by-north; nothing
higher."

"West-and-by-north, and nothin' higher, sir," answered the man, easing
his weather helm a couple of spokes as I turned away to see to the
preventer back-stays being rigged.

CHAPTER FIVE.

THE FRENCH FRIGATE.

Our preventer back-stays--which, for the benefit of the uninitiated, I
may explain, were simply extra ropes intended to take a portion of the
strain and so relieve the ordinary back-stays whenever it became
necessary to carry a very heavy press of canvas--were already cut and
fitted; all that we had to do, therefore, was to send their upper e