ed
to do so, even if, as he said, he should have to send one shot ahead of
her and then a dozen into her.

There is something wonderfully exciting about a race of any kind. Men
will make use of anything, from a donkey to a steamboat, to engineer a
trial of speed and endurance. Then they will stand around and watch the
running, as if the future welfare of the human race depended upon the
result. Even the _Goshhawk_ sailors, who had previously grumbled at the
British flag above them, were entirely reconciled to the situation, now
that it included the interesting question whether or not their swift
bark could show her heels to the cruiser. They were very much in doubt
about it, for the ships of the American navy had a high and well-earned
reputation as chasers. They might have been somewhat encouraged if they
had known that the _Portsmouth_, sloop-of-war, had been at sea a long
time without going into any dock to have her bottom scraped clean of its
accumulated barnacles. She was by no means in the best of training for
a marine race-course.

An hour went by and then another. The two vessels were now running on
almost parallel lines, so that any attempt of the sloop to draw nearer
cost her just so much of chasing distance. It might be that they were,
in fact, nearly matched, now that the wind had lulled a little, and both
of them were able to send up more canvas without too much risk of having
their sticks blown out of them. It looked like it, but the Yankee
captain had yet another idea in his sagacious head.

"Let her keep on," he said. "The old _Kennebec_ is out there, somewhere
westerly, not far away. That vagabond may find himself under heavier
guns than ours before sunset. Lieutenant, give him a gun."

"Ay, ay, sir!" came back, and in a moment more there was a flash and a
report at the bow of the _Portsmouth_.

Both range and distance had been well calculated, for an iron messenger,
ordering the _Goshhawk_ to heave to, fell into the water within a hundred
yards of her stern.

"That's near enough for the present," said the American commander, but
Captain Kemp exclaimed, in astonishment:

"They are firing on the British flag, are they? Then there is something
up that we don't know anything about. We must get away at all risks."

They were not doing so just now, although another change of course and a
strong puff of the gale carried the _Goshhawk_ further out of range. The
fact was that her pursuer did not feel q