n, and during
the darkness we must alter our course so as to give her the slip." All
hands were on deck at their stations, ready to shorten sail should it be
necessary. Many an eye was turned towards the stranger to ascertain if
she was getting nearer.

"What do you think about it, Sam?" asked Roger of the old sailor.

"Yonder craft is light, and we are heavily laden, though I will allow
that the _Dolphin_ slips along at a good rate; but there is no doubt
that she is gaining on us, though a stern chase is a long one. We may
keep ahead of her for some hours to come, always provided we do not
carry anything away."

"But if she does come up with us, what shall we have to do?" asked
Roger.

"Beat her off, of course, though we have only eight guns, and may be she
carries twenty or more; we must work ours twice as fast as she does
hers. I know those Algerine cut-throats of yore; and if they are met
bravely, they quickly show the white feather. It is only when the
Christians cry out `Peccavi!' and seem inclined to give in, that they
become wonderfully brave, and shout and shriek and wave their scimitars.
I was with the brave Captain Harman, aboard the twenty-six-gun ship
_Guernsey_, with a crew of a hundred and ten men all told, when we fell
in up the Straits with an Algerine man-of-war, carrying fifty guns and
five hundred men, called the _White Horse_. She stood down upon us,
under all sail, having the weather-gauge, and as soon as she got within
gunshot began blazing away. Several times she attempted to board, but
we drove back her cut-throat crew, though the rest of her people were
blazing away at us with musketry from her poop and forecastle. I
believe we should have taken her, but our captain received three musket
balls in his body, and was nearly knocked over by a gunshot; still he
would not go below, and remained on deck till he sank from loss of
blood. Our first lieutenant then took the command, and we continued
engaging for another hour or more, till we had lost nine killed and
three times as many wounded, for no one ever thought of giving in--that
meant having our throats cut or being carried off into slavery; but at
last the Algerine hauled off. Our rigging was too much cut about to
allow us to follow, so she got away with the loss of not far short of a
third of her crew, I suspect, from the number we saw hove overboard.
Our brave captain died three days afterwards from the effects of his
wounds, and