m for himself; but then it
was very different doing it for another, and that other a Frenchman. At
length, however, the boys were dismissed, having performed all the tasks
given to them. They hurried forward and dived below. The first person
they met was Pierre, who looked with commiseration on their tarred
dresses.

"I came on board with a nice clean suit, and had to spoil it just as you
have had to spoil yours," he observed; "and now he abuses me when I go
into his cabin, for not looking clean."

After this the boys were regularly sent aft to help wash down decks, and
to keep the stanchions and other parts about the ship bright. This gave
them abundant occupation. However, when they could manage to get below,
they were treated even more kindly than before by the crew.

They had been for some weeks cruising up and down without even sighting
a sail, when one morning, on Harry and David coming on deck, they found
the captain and officers in a considerable state of excitement. The
captain himself went aloft with his glass, and on his return ordered the
ship's course to be altered, and all sail to be set.

"We are in chase of some vessel or other," observed Harry; "depend upon
it the Frenchmen expect to make a prize of her."

All hands were called on deck. Now one sail and now another was
added,--some rigged out so as just to skim the surface of the water,
while with buckets and scoops the sails were wetted as high as they
could be reached. Harry and David could see in the far distance a large
ship, which from her narrow yards and the cut of her sails Harry said he
thought was really a merchantman, which of course the Frenchman took her
to be.

"But suppose she is not," said David.

"Then they will find out that they have caught a Tartar, and we shall
get out of the power of this Monsieur Sourcrout," answered Harry;
"however, we mustn't raise our hopes too high."

"The ship ahead has shown English colours," the boys heard from some of
the crew, for they could not get a glass to look through. She, it
seemed, did not like the appearance of the stranger, for she now set all
sail and went off also directly before the wind. A stern chase is a
long chase, but if the chaser is a faster vessel than the chased, she
will come up with her at last. As the day drew on it was very evident
that the schooner had gained very considerably on the chase. She was
seen to be an old-fashioned merchant vessel, a regular West