e carpenter report?" he asked, as the mate appeared,
after the well had been sounded.

"We've gained a foot upon the leaks, sir; but it's hard work to keep
them under, and if I might advise--"

"Please Heaven, we'll carry on, then, on the ship!" exclaimed the
master, interrupting him. "Let half a watch at a time work the pumps.
Before long the weather may moderate."

The day wore on, and the pursuer and the pursued held their course with
little variation. The _Zodiac_ tore her way through the water, and sea
succeeding sea met her persevering bows, and either yielded her a
passage or flew in deluges over her decks. Night came on, and the
stranger was upward of two leagues astern. The mate had before
miscalculated her distance; his anxiety to shorten sail had probably
somewhat blinded him. If the scene on board the _Zodiac_ appeared
terrific during daylight, much more so was it when darkness added its
own peculiar horrors. Still not a sheet nor a tack would the brave
master start, and he resolved, if the gale did not further increase, to
run through the night without shortening sail. He himself set an
example of hardihood and resolution to his crew, for scarcely a moment
did he quit his post during the day, or the dreary hours of the first
watch. As the short twilight disappeared, the stranger grew less and
less distinct, till her shadowy outline could alone be traced, and even
that by degrees vanished from the view of all but the most keen-sighted,
till at last she could nowhere be discerned. An anxious look out was
kept for her; for though shrouded by the obscurity from their sight,
every one on deck felt that she was where she had last been seen, if not
nearer; and some even fancied they could see her looming, surrounded by
a halo of unnatural light, through the darkness.

It was in the first hour of the morning-watch, and neither Bowse nor his
mate, though they swept the sea to the westward with their
night-glasses, could anywhere distinguish her.

"We have done better than we could have hoped for," observed the master.
"It will soon be day, and we then need not fear her."

"It will be more than three good hours yet before we have anything like
daylight," returned the mate; "and that cursed craft may be alongside us
before then."

"Well, we are prepared for her," returned the master.

"I hope so," exclaimed the mate; "for, by Heaven, Captain Bowse, there
she is, well on our weather quarter."

The m