reabouts?' said the luftenant.

"'There, sir; just under that cloud that's hiding the moon.'

"'Ay, so it is!' said he; 'I see her spars plain enough; nothing but a
royal loose--and there's her hull!' he continued, as the moon broke out,
and showed us a long, low, rakish-looking square brig, lying as snug as
a duck in the water, about two miles on our lee-bow. 'I don't like the
look of her at all,' says the luff, and away he goes to make his report.
She seemed to have twigged us at the same time, and didn't like the look
of us neither; for, almost before the smoke had cleared away from our
bows, after we had spoken to her with one of the forecastle guns, we
could hear the pipe on board of her, the night was so still; and, in a
crack, she was one cloud of canvas, from the truck to the lower boom.
Blowed if ever I seed a man-of-war do the thing smarter. 'All hands make
sail in chase!' was the cry on board of us, and, in a very short time,
the water was talking Spanish under our bows. Every stitch of sail was
packed on the ship: but the stranger stood right away before the light
breeze, and crawled away from us fast, for that was our worst sailing
point. We kept a-blazing away with our bow guns, to bring her to; but
the more we fired, the more she wouldn't stop; and we might just as well
have fired at the moon, for all the mischief we could do her. At
daylight, she was hull down ahead; but the breeze freshened with the
rising sun, and we began to fetch up our starnway, and, before noon, we
began to drop our shot into her. She wasn't slow in answering at first
from her stern guns, which were uncommon well sarved, and every now and
then walked a ball through our sails, but luckily did not strike our
masts. We were overhauling her in great style, peppering away as fast as
we could, when all at once she began to yaw about, and, giving a broad
sheer away to port, she shortened sail, and then came to the wind again
on the starboard tack, with her maintopsail to the mast, and doused a
red rag she had a-flying at the main. We gave over firing, and soon
bowled up alongside of her, rolled up the small sail, hauled up the
foresail, and backed the main-yard. Our captain hailed her in a devil of
a rage, and was answered in some lingo I couldn't understand; but the
fellow pointed to his boat, as had a plank knocked out of her side; and
orders were given to man our boats, and send them on board, to take
possession of her. Well, just as w