iving his associate to do so.

All day the Dutch brig was in sight, though by evening she had dwindled
to the merest speck on the northern horizon. The course prescribed
for Blood and Levasseur lay eastward along the northern shores of
Hispaniola. To that course the Arabella continued to hold steadily
throughout the night. When day broke again, she was alone. La Foudre
under cover of the darkness had struck away to The northeast with every
rag of canvas on her yards.

Cahusac had attempted yet again to protest against this.

"The devil take you!" Levasseur had answered him. "A ship's a ship, be
she Dutch or Spanish, and ships are our present need. That will suffice
for the men."

His lieutenant said no more. But from his glimpse of the letter, knowing
that a girl and not a ship was his captain's real objective, he gloomily
shook his head as he rolled away on his bowed legs to give the necessary
orders.

Dawn found La Foudre close on the Dutchman's heels, not a mile astern,
and the sight of her very evidently flustered the Jongvrow. No doubt
mademoiselle's brother recognizing Levasseur's ship would be responsible
for the Dutch uneasiness. They saw the Jongvrow crowding canvas in a
futile endeavour to outsail them, whereupon they stood off to starboard
and raced on until they were in a position whence they could send
a warning shot across her bow. The Jongvrow veered, showed them her
rudder, and opened fire with her stern chasers. The small shot went
whistling through La Foudre's shrouds with some slight damage to her
canvas. Followed a brief running fight in the course of which the
Dutchman let fly a broadside.

Five minutes after that they were board and board, the Jongvrow held
tight in the clutches of La Foudre's grapnels, and the buccaneers
pouring noisily into her waist.

The Dutchman's master, purple in the face, stood forward to beard the
pirate, followed closely by an elegant, pale-faced young gentleman in
whom Levasseur recognized his brother-in-law elect.

"Captain Levasseur, this is an outrage for which you shall be made to
answer. What do you seek aboard my ship?"

"At first I sought only that which belongs to me, something of which I
am being robbed. But since you chose war and opened fire on me with some
damage to my ship and loss of life to five of my men, why, war it is,
and your ship a prize of war."

From the quarter rail Mademoiselle d'Ogeron looked down with glowing
eyes in breathless won