er, felt a sort of confidence, as I was held lashed on
the poop to the mizzen rigging, that the brigantine might be caught and
whirled about--so long as she was above water--by the same blows of the
hurricane that beat upon the 'Scourge;' and when the tornado broke, and
some one sang out 'Sail ho!' I knew by instinct it must be the
'Centipede.'"

CHAPTER XXXVI.

THE CHASE.

"With sloping masts and dipping prow,
As who pursued with yell and blow
Still treads the shadow of his foe,
And forward bends his head,
The ship drove past, loud roared the blast,
And southward aye we fled."

"Clap on more sail, pursue, give fire--
She is my prize, or ocean whelms them all."

"So many slain--so many drowned!
I like not of that fight to tell.
Come, let the cheerful grog go round!
Messmates, I've done. A spell, ho, spell!"

"It was all hands again, gentlemen. The hurricane had settled
down into a moderate gale from northeast, though it was some time
before the awfully confused sea got to roll regularly. Then we
judged ourselves--for reckoning and observation had been out of
the question--to be a long way south of Jamaica, and even to the
southward of the great Pedro Bank. We did not wait this time for
the pirate to lead us in getting ready for a race, but we got up
a bran-new suit of top-sails and courses out of the sail-room,
and, so soon as the men could go aloft with safety, they were
ordered not to unbend the few tattered rags still clinging to the
yards, but to cut away at once. Up went the top-sails and courses,
and they were soon brought to the yards and set close-reefed, with
a storm-jib to steady the ship forward. Presently we gave her the
whole fore-sail and main-sail, and I think that even then, for
some hours, but one half the corvette's upper works could have been
visible as she plunged through the angry heaving seas.

"It left us dry enough, however, to pay some heed to the brigantine
ahead of us. She was about four miles off, a little on our weather bow,
and as she rode up--splendid sea-boat that she was--like a gull on the
back of a mighty roller, we could see that her bulwarks--mere boards and
canvas, probably--had been washed away, the house between her masts gone
too, and, no doubt, her long gun, or whatever else had been lying hid
under it. And now she was once more the schooner 'Centipede,' long
and sharp, and without any rail to speak of,