een well disposed, she would not have sent that iron messenger
after us."

For some time longer the "Arrow" stood on her course, while the
stranger, keeping directly astern, did not alter hers. I expected every
moment to hear our captain give the word to fire, but he refrained from
doing so. Suspicious as was the behaviour of our pursuer, still I
thought it possible that, after all, she might be a King's ship, and had
shown her proper colours. Presently, however, she yawed, her
studding-sails fluttering as she did so, being almost taken back. Two
spouts of flame, followed quickly by a couple of round shot, issued from
her bow-ports. That the shot were fired with evil intent was evident,
for one struck our larboard quarter close below where I was standing,
and knocked away the carved work, while the other, flying high, passed
close above our heads, and fell into the water not a dozen fathoms from
the ship. Before her helm could again be put up, Captain Magor shouted,
"Give it them, Tubbs," and our "Long Tom," with a loud roar, sending
forth a spout of flame, pitched a shot right through the fore part of
her bulwarks, and I could see the splinters fly as it struck them.

"Load and fire away as fast as you can," cried the captain; "if that's a
King's ship, she fired first, and must take the consequences."

I should have felt more satisfied had I been convinced that the captain
was right, but still I could not help fancying that she was a royal
cruiser, and that we might be committing a terrible mistake. Shot after
shot was now aimed at our pursuer. Tom Tubbs and his men hauling in and
loading the gun with a rapidity which only well-trained hands could have
done. Few of our shots--as far as I could judge--appeared to be so
successfully aimed as the first had been. Still I heard Captain Magor
shouting out, "Well done, my lads; never saw a gun better served. Wing
her if you can; knock away her foremast, and twenty golden guineas shall
be yours."

The stranger all this time did not return our fire, for she could not
bring her foremost guns to bear without yawing, and by doing so she
would have lost ground. She was still gaining on us, and I observed at
length that she had slightly altered her course, so as to be creeping up
on our starboard quarter, though so slightly, that at first the
alteration was not perceived. Captain Magor took two or three short
turns on the poop, then suddenly stopping, he shouted, "In