that could stop her; and I saw the men throwing off
their shoes and half stripping themselves, ready for what was to come.

"The steamer headed dead to strike our weather-beam; she rushed at us
with the foam boiling over her bows; once more I chucked the schooner
right up into the wind, and the steamer went past us like a rocket
under our stern. I looked at her and sha'n't ever forget what I saw.
There was a white-haired man, with white whiskers and bareheaded,
roaring and raging at us in the grasp of three or four seamen. 'Twas
like a death-struggle. A chap who looked as if he had just seized the
wheel was grinding it hard over to get away from us; and so the
steamer fled past, more like a nightmare than a reality, and in a few
minutes was standing with full speed to the norrard, where, in less
than a quarter of an hour, she faded slick out of sight.

"It was some time after I had left the 'Evangeline' and was at home
before I got to know the meaning of this here wonderful adventure. The
party, it turned out, was no less than the wife of the general as
owned the 'Violet,' and she was running away with Mr. Robinson. May be
our men had talked about our going to the Mediterranean, but anyhow
the general who was in London at the time, got scent that his wife had
bolted with Mr. Robinson in the 'Evangeline,' and in less than
twenty-four hours he was after us in his steamer. He tracked us by
speaking the vessels we passed; and the light airs and calms we had
encountered easily allowed him to overhaul quickly. And it turned out
that when he had fairly sighted us, he sent the man at the wheel
forward, and took the helm himself. The crew dursn't express their
wonder aloud, though they knew he was no hand at steering, not to
mention the mad agitation he was in, and they let him have his way
when he headed the steamer for us, expecting that he merely wished to
close us in order to speak; but when I put my helm down and the
steamer passed, and they spied the general rounding his craft
evidently to run us down, they threw themselves upon him to save their
own lives as well as ours. That was the sight I saw as the steamer
rushed past. A few moments after they had gone clear the poor old
fellow was seized with an attack of apoplexy, which killed him right
off, and thereupon they headed right away to England with the dead
body aboard.

"What do you think of this for a yarn? Would any one suppose such
vengefulness could exist in a