ulation of the distance the tug would run while the boat was
approaching her.

The smoke blew aside in a moment, and Christy discovered that the
long-boat had not been struck by the shot; or, if it had, it had
received no material damage. The major was still urging his men to
increase their efforts, and he seemed to be not at all disconcerted by
the shot which had been fired at him. But Christy saw that he was losing
the game, as he probably would not have done if he had been a sailor,
for his calculations would have been better made.

When the pilot of the Leopard realized that the major was too much
occupied in increasing the speed of the long-boat to continue the firing
at the tug, he had resumed his place at the window; but he kept his eye
on the enemy. He looked out at the window; but he could not see Captain
Pecklar, though he heard him shovelling coal a minute later. The engine
still appeared to be doing its best, and the tug was in a fair way to
pass clear of the long-boat.

"Look out, up there, Christy!" shouted the engineer, a little later.

The pilot turned his attention to the boat again, and saw that the major
and the lieutenant were loading their muskets again, and the two men
not at the oars were doing the same. The commandant evidently began to
feel that he was to miss his prey if he depended upon the oars of the
soldiers, and he was about to turn his attention again to the business
of disabling the pilot of the tug. Christy dropped down on the floor
again, and steered by the compass, which was still where he had placed
it before.

He could hear a rumbling sound on the forward deck, and he was curious
to know what the captain was doing; but it was not prudent to look
out at the window. After a great deal of hard kicking and prying, he
succeeded in removing a narrow board from the front of the pilot-house
near the floor; and through this aperture he could see that the acting
engineer had just finished reloading the gun, and was changing its
position so as to bring it to bear on the long-boat.

The enemy were now a little forward of the beam of the tug, and not more
than fifty yards from her; but Christy was satisfied that the Leopard
would go clear of the long-boat if his craft was not disabled. The major
and his companions could not help seeing that Captain Pecklar had
deserted their cause, and that, with the gun on the deck, he was a
dangerous enemy.

The report of a musket in the direction of t