n either side of the stone, each pressing a bare
blade to its fiercely buzzing disc.

We continued to drift along at an exasperatingly slow pace before the
languid breeze until we had arrived within about four miles of the two
craft, when the skipper gave orders to clear the decks and cast loose
the guns; but he instructed me that the galley fire was not to be
extinguished and the magazine opened until the last moment. Apparently
he had his doubts as to the probability of the brigantine attacking us.
And, if so, his doubts were soon confirmed; for when we had reduced the
distance by another mile the lookout aloft reported that the brigantine
was filling away; and in another minute or two she turned her stern to
us, rigged out her studding-sail booms, and went off before the wind,
setting her studding-sails as she went.

"Ah!" ejaculated the captain, "it is as I feared! She smells a rat, and
does not mean to wait for us! Hoist out the gig at once, Mr Courtenay,
and pull for your life to that ship; too probably it is a case of the
_Wyvern_ over again, and if there are any people left aboard her they
must be saved. Let the men go fully armed, but do not take more than
the boat's proper complement, as you are not likely to have any fighting
to do, while you may want all the room in the boat that you can spare."

We were by this time moving so slowly that it was unnecessary to heave-
to in order to hoist out the gig. No time, therefore, was lost in
getting her into the water, and within five minutes of the issuing of
the order by the captain we were afloat and away from the schooner, with
the men--a picked crew, consisting of the strongest and smartest men in
the ship--bending their backs as they drove the beautifully modelled
boat at racing speed through the water.

We had barely got away, however, before I detected light wreaths of
smoke curling up between the masts of the distant ship; and at the same
moment I observed that although her mainyards were still braced aback
she seemed to be no longer hove-to, for, as I watched, her bows fell off
until she was nearly before the wind, and she went drifting slowly away
to leeward, sometimes heading in one direction and sometimes in another,
yawing about all over the place, with a difference of fully four points
on either side of the general direction in which she was driving. This
was most exasperating, as although she was drifting slowly she was still
drifting, and tha