nds
aloft and attach them to their respective spars by shackling the eye to
a stout iron collar on the spar, fitted especially for the purpose, set
up the lower ends by means of runners to ring-bolts in the stanchions,
and the thing was done. Five minutes sufficed for this job, and we then
reset our topgallant-sail and flying-jib, and shifted our gaff-topsail.
The effect soon became apparent; for a few minutes after we had
concluded our work the frigate fired another gun, the shot from which
only reached to within about thirty fathoms of us. I was inclined to
attribute this result, however, quite as much to our having eased the
schooner away a trifle as to the extra canvas that we had packed upon
her. I believed we should have done quite as well, if not better,
without it; for the poor little craft seemed pressed down and buried by
the enormous leverage of the wind upon her sails. She was heeling over
so much that it was difficult to maintain one's footing upon the steeply
inclined deck; the lee scuppers were all afloat, and at every lee roll
the white, yeasty seething from her lee bow brimmed to the level of her
rail, sometimes even toppling in over it. She was a magnificent sea-
boat; but we were now driving her so unmercifully that at every plunge
into the hollow of a sea she buried her sharp nose completely, taking
green water in over both the lee and the weather-bow by tons at a time,
so that it became necessary to close the fore-scuttle to prevent the
water from going below. As for the spray, it flew over us in clouds,
coming right aft, and wetting our mainsail as high up as the second
reef-band.

Another gun from the frigate served to conclusively demonstrate that we
were at least holding our own; but our topmasts were bending like
fishing-rods, and at every savage plunge of the schooner I quite
expected to see one or both of them go over the side. The skipper, too,
was very uneasy, as I could see by the anxious glances that he
continually flung aloft. At length, when the frigate had fired yet
another gun, the shot from which fell at about the same distance astern
of us as the preceding one had done, he turned to me and said:

"This is all very well, George, as far as it goes; and if the wind would
only drop a little we might snap our fingers at that fellow astern; but
I don't at all like the way that those topmasts are whipping about, up
there. If so much as a rope-yarn parts we shall lose them, as sur