know what's about the best she can do. If this wind
holds, I think we can fetch Vera Cruz at nightfall. No one Yankee'd
dare to follow us under the guns of San Juan de Ulua."

"I reckon not," slowly responded the mate of the _Goshhawk_, "but we
don't need to get under that chap's bow-chasers, either."

"No," said Captain Kemp, "but I'll risk a shot or two."

Ned Crawford heard him, for he had been following him pretty closely, to
know what was coming.

"I don't know," he was thinking, "how far one o' those cannon of hers'll
carry. I don't believe, either, that they can hit a mark that is
plunging along as we are. It'd be worse than shooting at a bird on the
wing. Still, it's kind of awful to be shot at by our own people."

The sailors of the _Goshhawk_ were also thinking, and they were beginning
to look at one another very doubtfully. Not only were they Americans,
most of them, but they had not shipped for any such business as this,
and they did not fancy the idea of being killed for nothing. Moreover,
Ned himself heard one of them muttering:

"There's an ugly look to this thing. If a shot from that cruiser were to
strike us amidships, we'd all be blown into the air."

Decidedly that was not a pleasant thing to think of. Neither was there
any great amount of comfort in a suggestion made by another of the men:

"Well, we'd never know what hurt us. We must keep out o' range."

Not long afterward there was a flash at one of the bow-ports of the
cruiser. The report which followed was a peremptory order to heave to,
under penalty of consequences. The gun was shotted, and a great many
eyes watched anxiously for the dipping of that well-aimed ball of iron.
It skipped from crest to crest of several waves before it sank, and then
Captain Kemp shouted:

"All right, men! Half a mile short! We shall get there. The coast's in
full sight now, and we've less than five miles to run."

"Ay, ay, sir!" came back from them, half cheerfully, but one voice was
heard to grumble:

"It's all right, is it? Well, if it wasn't for that half-mile o'
shortage, there'd be a mutinee-e on board o' this ship. I'd start it. I
ain't a-goin' to get myself knocked on the head by Uncle Sam's own men."

There would very likely have been a mutiny, even as it was, if there had
now been time for it to take shape. Thus far, the excitement of the
chase had been in the captain's favor, but the seamen would have been
legally justified in resisting him