without details, and go on to the end; for it is time that the end
should come.

It was now the sixteenth day of the chase. They had seen, the evening
before, St. David's Head, and then the Welsh coast round Milford
Haven, looming out black and sharp before the blaze of the inland
thunder-storm; and it had lightened all round them during the fore part
of the night, upon a light south-western breeze.

In vain they had strained their eyes through the darkness, to catch, by
the fitful glare of the flashes, the tall masts of the Spaniard. Of
one thing at least they were certain, that with the wind as it was, she
could not have gone far to the westward; and to attempt to pass them
again, and go northward, was more than she dare do. She was probably
lying-to ahead of them, perhaps between them and the land; and when, a
little after midnight, the wind chopped up to the west, and blew stiffly
till day break, they felt sure that, unless she had attempted the
desperate expedient of running past them, they had her safe in the mouth
of the Bristol Channel. Slowly and wearily broke the dawn, on such a day
as often follows heavy thunder; a sunless, drizzly day, roofed with low
dingy cloud, barred and netted, and festooned with black, a sign that
the storm is only taking breath awhile before it bursts again; while all
the narrow horizon is dim and spongy with vapor drifting before a chilly
breeze. As the day went on, the breeze died down, and the sea fell to a
long glassy foam-flecked roll, while overhead brooded the inky sky, and
round them the leaden mist shut out alike the shore and the chase.

Amyas paced the sloppy deck fretfully and fiercely. He knew that the
Spaniard could not escape; but he cursed every moment which lingered
between him and that one great revenge which blackened all his soul.
The men sate sulkily about the deck, and whistled for a wind; the sails
flapped idly against the masts; and the ship rolled in the long troughs
of the sea, till her yard-arms almost dipped right and left.

"Take care of those guns. You will have something loose next," growled
Amyas.

"We will take care of the guns, if the Lord will take care of the wind,"
said Yeo.

"We shall have plenty before night," said Cary, "and thunder too."

"So much the better," said Amyas. "It may roar till it splits the
heavens, if it does but let me get my work done."

"He's not far off, I warrant," said Cary. "One lift of the cloud, and we
should se