Although the "Sea Bee" was holding a course in the wake of the "Ruth,"
and was heeled handsomely over before the same freshening breeze, she
was not doing so well by a half, and it was evident that in a long run
the launch must overtake her.

"She is certainly gaining on us," said Cabot, after a long look, and he
had hardly spoken before a second shot from the launch plumped a ball
into the water abreast of the little schooner and not two rods away.

White, who was at the tiller, glanced nervously backward. "Do you want
to heave to and let them overhaul us?" he asked.

"Certainly not," replied Cabot promptly. "They have no right to meddle
with us out here, and I would keep straight on without paying the
slightest attention to them until they either sink us or get alongside."

"All right," laughed the other. "I only wanted to make sure how you
felt. Some fellows, you know, don't like to have cannon balls fired at
them."

CHAPTER XV.

OFF FOR LABRADOR.

Slowly but surely the launch gained on the flying schooner, until, as
the sun was sinking behind its western horizon of water, she fired a
shot that passed through the "Sea Bee's" mainsail and fell a hundred
yards beyond her.

"Wh-e-e-w!" exclaimed White, as he glanced up at the clean-cut hole.
"That's rather too close for comfort, and I shouldn't be surprised if
the next one made splinters fly. However, it will soon be dark, and
then, if we are not disabled, we may be able to give them the slip."

"I don't believe there's going to be another shot," cried Cabot, who
was gazing eagerly astern. "No--yes--hurrah! They are turning back.
They have given it up, old man, and we are safe. Bully for us! I
wonder what possesses them to do such a thing, though, when they had so
nearly caught us?"

"Can't imagine," replied White, who was also staring at the launch,
which certainly had circled back and was making towards the place
whence she had come. "They are afraid to be caught out at sea after
dark perhaps. I always understood that Frenchmen made mighty poor
sailors. Lucky thing for us she wasn't a British launch, for they'd
have kept on around the world but what they'd had us."

In justice to the Frenchmen it should be said that their reason for
turning back, which our lads did not learn until long afterwards, was
the imminent exhaustion of their coal supply, which, not calculated for
a long cruise, would barely serve to carry them back to the Bay