help them all! thought Seymour, desperately, for in
that event he resolved to run the vessel on the rocky edge of the shoal
at the pass mouth and sink her.

They were rapidly drawing down upon the shoal at the point from which
they must come by the wind, on the starboard tack. Some far-away
lights on Cape Cod had just been lighted, which enabled Seymour to get
his bearing exactly. He had talked the situation over quietly with
Bentley, and they had not yet lost hope of escaping. The men had
worked hard and faithfully, carrying out the various orders and
lightening ship, and now, having done all, some few were lying about
the deck resting, while the remainder hung over the rails gazing at
their pursuer. One of the men, the sea philosopher Thompson, of the
Ranger's crew, finally went aft to the quarter-deck to old Bentley, who
was privileged to stand there under the circumstances, and asked if he
might have a look through the glass for a moment at the frigate.

CHAPTER XVI

_'Twixt Love and Duty_

"Ay, it's as I thought," he remarked, returning the glass after a long
gaze; "that's the Radnor, curse her!"

"The Radnor, mate? Are you quite sure?"

"Bosun, does a man live in a hell like that for a year and a half, and
forget how it looks? I 'd know her among a thousand ships!"

"What's that you say, my man?" eagerly asked Seymour, stopping
suddenly, having caught some part of the conversation as he was passing
by.

"Why, that that 'ere ship is the Radnor, sir."

Talbot and his men were busy with the gun aft; no one heard but Seymour
and Bentley.

"The Radnor! How do you know it, man?"

"I served aboard her for eighteen months, sir. I knows every line of
her,--that there spliced fore shroud, the patch in the mainsail,--I put
it on myself,--besides, I know her; I don't know how, but know her I
do, every stick in her. Curse her--saving your honor's presence--I 'm
not likely to forget her. I was whipped at the grating till I was
nearly dead, just for standing up for this country, on board of her,
and me a freeborn American too! I 've got her sign manual on my back,
and her picture here, and I 'd give all the rest of my life to see her
smashed and sunk, and feel that I 'd had some hand in the doing of it.
Ay, I know her. Could a man ever forget her!" continued the seaman,
turning away white with passion, and shaking his fist in convulsive
rage at the frigate, which made a handsome picture in spite