it was useless to contend longer against such
heavy odds, released their prisoner, and dived out of sight to escape
the savage blows which Atkins and Jack Spaniard aimed at them with the
oars. Tom was dragged into the skiff by the governor, who ordered the
band back to the schooner; and the midshipman, after being picked up by
Simmonds, took his seat in the stern of the jolly-boat, and directed her
course up the harbor. He had made a gallant attack upon a superior force
of the enemy, and had succeeded in capturing one of them; but he had got
the worst of the fight in the end, his prisoner had been rescued, and
now the only thing he could do was to report the state of affairs to his
superior officer.

"I am sorry that we are obliged to let them go," drawled Tom, as he
sprang upon the deck of the schooner, and saw the jolly-boat
disappearing in the darkness. "I'd like to have them prisoners long
enough to pay them for the ducking they gave me. Friday, drop the skiff
astern. Fill away, Xury, and hold for the head of the island. Atkins,
are you sailor enough to loose those gaff top-sails?"

"I reckon," was the reply.

"Well, go aloft, then, and do it. Governor, you and Jack Spaniard hoist
the flying jib. We have need of all the rags we can spread, now."

In a few minutes every inch of canvas the Sweepstakes carried had been
given to the breeze, and the little vessel boomed along over the waves
at a terrific rate. The topmasts bent and cracked, the foam rolled away
in great masses from under her bows, and now and then a fierce gust of
wind would fill the sails, and the schooner would roll down until she
seemed on the point of capsizing. Her captain, no longer the coward he
was when he accompanied Mr. Graves on the trial trip of the Storm King,
stood holding fast to the rail, and looking back toward the harbor. He
knew that the fire-bells would soon arouse the town, that the news of
the robbery and the destruction of the yacht would spread like
wild-fire, and that the pursuit would not be long delayed. He wanted a
good start in the race; and he would have spread all the canvas if the
wind had been blowing a gale.

"We've got a long voyage to make, you know, skipper," said the chief,
"an' we must be careful of our vessel."

"But when we are in danger we must get all that we can out of her,"
replied Tom. "Hold her to it, Xury, don't luff an inch. If she can't
stand this breeze, we've no business to go to sea in her. But I