ant. But minute after minute passed, and she
still came steadily on, heeling slightly to the steady trade wind, and
bowing solemnly over the undulating swell, with a curl of white foam
under her bluff bows that made her appear to be travelling at about
three times her actual speed. We had by this time fore-reached athwart
her fore-foot, and were edging along at a pace that promised to place us
about half a mile to windward of her by the time that she would be
crossing our stern, and now I kept the night-glass immovably bearing
upon her, watching for the sudden yaw that should indicate the discovery
of a possible enemy in her path. I had by this time made up my mind
that she was a Spaniard, and the mere fact of her adventuring, herself
thus alone, instead of availing herself of a convoy, was to me
sufficient assurance that she went heavily armed and manned. It also
suggested the possibility that she might be carrying an exceptionally-
rich freight, it sometimes happening that the skipper of such a ship,
especially if he chanced to be a man of daring and courage, preferred to
take his chance of making the voyage alone rather than risk being cut
off from the convoy by the swarm of privateers and picaroons that
hovered upon its skirts almost from the moment of its sailing to that of
its arrival.

Our people were by this time all at their stations, with sheets and
halliards in their hands, ready to sway away at the first word of an
order from me; and it was not so dark but that I was able to see, out of
the corner of my eye, the nudges and gestures of delight which they
interchanged as the great, stately Indiaman swept at length athwart our
stern, dark and silent as a phantom.

"Up helm and wear her round," I shouted, all necessity for further
concealment being now at an end; "sheet home and hoist away for'ard--
hold on aft with your peak and throat halliards until we are fairly
round! Starboard braces round in! trim aft the starboard headsheets!
_Now_ hoist away your mainsail! Ah, they see us at last! There she
bears away. Steady there with your lee helm, my man; do not let her
come to just yet. Keep the chase upon your weather bow; she must not be
allowed to get to leeward of us. Mr Lindsay, just pitch a shot athwart
her hawse as a hint that we wish her to heave-to."

The shot was fired, and another, and yet a third, but the stranger took
no notice whatever, the object of her captain being apparently to bear
a