after the black
pirates. "I hope you and Stoddart, between you, won't be rash, cap'en.
I hope--I do hope you won't!"

"Nonsense, Stokes, you old croker; just you shut up!" said the skipper.
"Keep her steady, east-nor'-east, helmsman! Now, my dear colonel, at
last we really are after those infernal rascals in earnest; and, sir,
between you and me and the binnacle, we'll be up to them before long
before nightfall, I'll wager!"

"I hope to heaven we will, Senor Applegarth," replied the other sadly,
but eagerly. "But, alas! the ocean is wide, and we may miss the ship.
I cannot bear to think of it!"

"Oh, but we won't miss her!" said the skipper confidently, and he was
the last man to give up hope. "Take my davy for that, sir. She must be
within a radius of from twenty to thirty miles of our present bearings
on the chart, somewhere here away to the eastwards, sir; and if we make
a long leg to leeward and then bear up to the north'ard and west'ard
again, we'll overhaul her--I'm sure of it--yes, sure of it, in no time.
Look, colonel, look how we're going now. By George, ain't that a bow
wave for you, sir, and just see our wake astern!"

The old barquey was certainly steaming ahead at a great rate, the sea
coming up before her in a high ridge that nearly topped the fo'c's'le,
and welling under her counter on either hand in undulating furrows that
spread out beneath her stern in the form of a broad arrow, widening
their distance apart as she moved onward, while the space between was
frosted as if with silver by the white foam churned up by the ever-
whirling propeller blades, beating the water with their rhythmical
iteration, thump-thump, thump-thump, thump-thump!

There was no "racing" of the screw now, for Neptune was in one of his
quiet moods and there were no big rollers to surmount, or deep wave
valleys to descend into; consequently the old barquey had no excuse for
giving way to any gambolling propensities in the water of pitching and
tossing, steaming away on an even keel and using every inch of power of
her engines, with not an ounce to waste in the way of mis-spent force!

And so on we went, tearing through the water, a blue sky overhead
unflecked by a single cloud, a blue sea around that sparkled in sunshine
and reflected harmonies of azure and gold, save where the bright fresh
western breeze rippled its surface with laughing wavelets that chuckled
as they splashed the spray into each other's faces, or whe