reason why
you should be more than any one else."

"Well, well, I'm not afraid," answered Ben; "the enemy's shot are in no
ways particular, and I should not be so very sorry if one of them was to
take off the head of that Lord Reginald or Toady Voules, as his
messmates call him."

"I could not bring myself to wish either one of them such a fate as
that," observed Dick, who had not altogether forgotten his mother's
instructions and Christian principles.

"I have no reason to love either the young lord or his toady, and I
should not weep my eyes out if they were to be killed--they'd only get
their deserts; and for my own part, I would like to see them both
knocked over by the same round shot," growled Ben, between his teeth.

The frigate was now approaching the chase. The drum beat to quarters,
and the crew hurried up from below, most of them stripped to the waist
with handkerchiefs round their heads and loins. The glare of the
fighting lanterns, hung up on the beams along the deck, cast a glow on
their muscular figures, the breaches of the guns and other salient
points, while all the rest were cast in the deepest gloom.

Ben went to his gun, and Dick was ordered below to the magazine to bring
up ammunition. Though much bigger than any of the other lads so
employed, as he had been only a short time at sea, he had to perform the
humble duty of a powder monkey. He would far rather have been engaged
in working one of the guns.

The _Wolf_ was carrying all the canvas which could be packed on her,
studding-sails on either side and royals aloft. The chase also, under
all sail, was still doing her utmost to keep ahead, but the _Wolf_,
being the fastest ship of the two, gained rapidly on her. The men stood
at their guns, waiting eagerly for the moment that the order to fire
should be given, laughing, however, and cracking their usual jokes. The
officers went their rounds, to see that all necessary preparations had
been made.

Dick was seated on his ammunition tub on the maindeck, when Lord
Reginald and Voules, who had each a certain number of guns to look
after, passed him.

"I say, Oswald, that young smuggler looks pale enough now," observed
Voules, in a voice sufficiently loud for Dick to hear him. "We must
keep a sharp look-out on him, or he'll be running below to stow himself
away in the hold."

"Trust me for that! those ruffians ashore are the greatest cowards
afloat," answered the young lord, as he pass