aid every moment that the people of the brig might gain courage and
turn round upon us. If so, we should be worse off than ever, as we
should not have a chance of escaping. Friend Scuttle eyed the brig as
anxiously as I did, though with very different wishes. Still we held
on, looking, I doubt not, very fierce, and the privateer's men must have
been no less anxious to get away from us than we were from them. At
length evening approached, and never did I see the sun set with so much
satisfaction. Gradually the shades of night crept over the ocean, and I
drew a long breath as the brig was lost to our sight in the thickening
gloom. As soon as I was certain that we could not possibly be seen, I
ordered the sloop to be kept away, and once more made all sail to the
northward, altering my course a few points from that I had been steering
when first seen by the brig, lest she should by any chance be looking
after us in the morning. Probably the privateer's men were
congratulating themselves at thus easily escaping from us. As I gave
vent to my feelings in a hearty cheer the poor skipper exhibited his in
a deep groan, and then, having assisted in making sail, turned in to try
and forget his sorrows in sleep. The weather continued fine till the
7th of the month, when I made the land about five leagues to the
westward of Halifax harbour. Soon after this the wind fell and we had a
stark calm. By Mr Scuttle's advice I fitted a couple of fishing-lines,
and in the course of an hour, with those two lines alone, caught one
hundred and twenty-four very fine cod. They proved a welcome addition
to our usual salt-meat fare. Those we could not eat fresh we split open
and dried in the sun, and they thus served us for food for several days.

"What do you think of the weather now, Grampus?" said I, after we had
been fishing for some time.

"I don't like its looks at all, sir," he replied. "This is a ticklish
coast at all times, and one never knows what's coming."

"If you had asked me, I could have told you that we are going to have
wind, and fully enough of it," observed Mr Scuttle.

He had got into a mighty free-and-easy style of talking of late. He was
perfectly right, though in addition to the wind, which sprung up
immediately afterwards, we got a thick fog, which totally obscured the
land. I steered a course, however, which I hoped would carry us to the
harbour's mouth. We ran on for some time and then hove-to, that we