eyes,
in the course of a few minutes I made out the speck to be beyond
doubt the royals of a distant ship.

"Sail ho!" I cried with all my might.

"Where away?" shouts the captain, and when I answered "About
west-sou'-west," he went to the companion way, reached for his
perspective glass, and, mounting the rigging, climbed as high as
the royal yard.

He took a long look through the glass, and then, shutting it up
with a snap, he cries:

"You're right, my lad, smite my taffrail if you're not. She's a
Frenchman, sure enough, and the bounty's yours if it comes to a
battering and grappling. I'm a man of my word, I am."

The stranger was yet a good way off, and the captain, instead of
altering the brig's course and standing in pursuit, shouted to the
men to brace the yards round, and, the wind being due north, headed
straight for Bordeaux, whither the vessel was to all appearance
making. At the same time he hoisted French colors at the mizzen,
and then ordered one of the anchors to be dropped over the stern
and about fifty fathom of cable to be paid out, the meaning of
which I did not understand till Dilly explained that 'twas to check
the way on the brig and allow the stranger to overhaul us. Then he
cried to us to lie flat on the deck and keep out of sight, and he
sent one of the best hands to the wheel, wearing a red cap, which
was, Dilly told me, to make him look like a Frencher.

There was only a light six-knot breeze, and Dilly said that the
anchor dragging astern took quite two knots off our speed, so that
in the course of an hour the stranger came clearly into view. She
was a big barque, deep in the water, and the men chuckled as they
peeped at her, for 'twas clear she was full of cargo. Every sail
was set, alow and aloft, and she came on steadily at a good rate,
not altering her course a point, from which 'twas plain she had as
yet no suspicions of us.

I noticed that a buoy had been fixed to the end of the cable
inboard.

"What's that for?" I asked Dilly, who lay at my side.

"'Tis ready to be flung over," he replied, "so as to mark the
position of our cable when it is sent by the board. We'll come back
for it anon."

When the vessel was about a mile distant, our captain gave the
order to fling the cable overboard, then shouted:

"Hard up, wear ship."

We sprang to the braces, the ship spun round, and there we were on
the starboard tack heading straight for the stranger. 'Twas clear
then that sh